Caleb the Fool
by ambiguously
Summary: Fourteen years have passed since Anakin Skywalker killed Chancellor Palpatine then fled into sanctuary with his wife. Now the Skywalker twins have come before the Jedi High Council to request training in their powers. This is only the beginning of Caleb's problems. Alternate Universe: no Order 66.
1. Chapter 1

Note: Takes some liberties with the setting i.e. if I didn't know a detail for sure and couldn't find out on Wookieepedia, I made it up. Warnings for major character death.

* * *

Looking back, Caleb should have skipped the meeting.

A message had been sent out to all Jedi to report to the Temple. The sight of Master Yoda, the same wizened face which oversaw every Initiate's early lessons over the past several centuries, added a deliberate weight to the call. Surely even the handful of Jedi off-world felt a peculiar guilt for ignoring the immediate summons, pressing into mind the remembered shame of a mishandled toy or wet pants. Not a bad trick. Caleb told himself he was attending for perfectly ordinary reasons, and not because of the unnerving discord he felt at even considering disobedience. He was curious. Anyone would be.

He'd chosen a viewing spot near the back of the room to get a sightline on the large viewscreen while staying clear of the tight gathering of elders, youngsters, and everyone in-between. He had just leaned against a convenient bit of wall when he felt a touch at his shoulder.

Even before he turned, he knew who it was. "This is my wall, Depa." He said it with a smile, ready to shift and make room. She was shorter than he was, and needed a better view.

"With me, Caleb."

Just as with Yoda's summons, he couldn't shake off the feeling that 'no' wasn't an option with his former master today. He'd happily followed her into far scarier places than through a crowd of their fellows. He hurried his steps to keep up. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," she said with impish amusement, and would say no more. They had long ago settled into their positions as equals and friends. Caleb could forgive Depa's habit of acting like his mother when she thought he could use some guidance. She needed a new Padawan to train up and to take her mind off bothering Caleb about taking on an apprentice of his own.

Her path led them away from the main gathering chamber. His curiosity nagged at him. He'd wanted to watch the proceedings with everyone else. He assumed there'd be a recording for later, but it wasn't the same. Instead, and to his delight, Depa brought him to the Council chamber. About thirty Jedi thronged the airy room, the Masters in their seats, and the rest standing at the edges. Depa noted his quickly-held grin as she took her own chair, indicating a place for him to stand just behind her with a perfect view.

Two kids stood in the middle of the room, a boy and a girl, both about fourteen years old. They looked younger. He'd have thought the twin causes of galactic turmoil would appear a little more evil. Instead, the boy had a wide-eyed expression as he was overwhelmed with the sheer number of Jedi in this building and surrounding him in this room. His gaze darted around the chamber, catching on faces and jumping away again to stare out the window at the vehicles rushing past. His sister radiated a calm and dignity that refused to be affronted by the obvious intimidation attempt. Every so often, she smiled at her brother in the same manner Depa had often smiled at Caleb, indulgent but with an undertone of "Quit it, you are embarrassing me," which the boy ignored.

Low conversations took place around the room, pairs and trios whispering. Master Kenobi sat directly in front of the children, watching them. His face remained unreadable.

"I think it's time," he said, voice mild but tone firm enough to silence the rest of the chattering. "Children, please state your names. For our records."

Caleb nearly laughed, which Depa silenced with a look. He was being allowed in here as her guest. Her expression said he could choose to behave, or he could go back downstairs with the rest of the assembled throng, but she knew he'd make the correct choice. He settled his expression instantly.

This had to be some kind of joke. Everybody knew who these kids were, and what they represented. Caleb had been a kid, not any older than these two, when everything had changed. Chancellor Palpatine had been revealed as the Sith Lord behind the Separatists this whole time. Master Windu had led the mission to arrest him with three other Jedi.

From where he stood, Caleb could see Master Windu in his own red chair, face still bearing the scars from that day. Windu caught Depa's eye and nodded once.

Master Windu had returned to the Temple alone, reporting to the astonished Council that Anakin Skywalker had joined him, and had slain the Chancellor himself. Skywalker had then fled, joining his secret wife in exile on her homeworld of Naboo. That same hour, most of the Grand Army of the Republic had gone berserk. To no one's knowledge, the clones had been implanted with an organic chip in their heads which short-circuited at the death of the Chancellor. Without him, the chips had killed the poor wretches within minutes, but not before they attacked the nearest target in their blind panic and rage. Those targets had often been other clones or innocent civilians, or the Jedi who'd been their allies. Caleb still woke up from nightmares about his friends writhing in agony while he stood back, frightened and unable to help.

The Republic had tilted wildly, flinging blame in all directions, most of it landing directly on the Order. The Jedi had assassinated Palpatine. The Jedi wanted to seize power. The Senate squabbled and fought, electing and rejecting leader after leader. Skywalker's clandestine marriage and the birth of his children a few days later were used as further proof of the untrustworthiness of the group as a whole: so-called chaste peacekeepers had conducted a massive war and murdered the Chancellor, while engaging in lurid entanglements. Truth and rumor warped together. Jedi could control the minds of others. Jedi abducted young children from their parents and taught them unnatural magic. What else had they done? What else would they do?

To save the precarious new peace, the Jedi chose to withdraw from the public world and to retreat within these walls on Coruscant and the smaller Temples on other worlds. Only a few remained in the galaxy at large. Master Billaba had taken her own apprentice away from here as often as she could justify it, but more of the Order had been unhappy with their involvement in the war, and were pleased to be handed a reason to focus on inner peace rather than outer chaos. The Jedi had faded into an uncomfortable legend elsewhere, keeping themselves uninvolved with politics and power. A few diplomatic missions were approved from time to time, as well as missions for those whose task it was to identify children with Force sensitivity and offer their families the chance for their education. Some Jedi politely ignored the decree and went about their own business. Most of these were healers or teachers, sworn to their work with greater bonds than to the wishes of the Council. A rare few were troublemakers who couldn't help getting involved. Master Tano was one of the latter, rarely seen on Coruscant but present today in her own chair, silently watching the rest of the room.

Alderaan held the Chancellorship now, but it was a meaningless position. The Senate was a mere shell of its former power, content to squabble over minutia while systems established their own treaties and laws against the will of a powerless central government. The Separatists were gone, vanished as soon as Palpatine died, but their goal of dissolving the power of the Core Worlds had succeeded. All this had happened because one Jedi took the law into his own hands for the sake of the woman he loved.

Four months ago, Anakin Skywalker died on Naboo, a victim of his own overconfidence and the poor braking abilities of a podracer he'd built. The news had come to Master Kenobi directly from Skywalker's widow. And now their children, the root of these ills, two of the most famous causes of strife in recent Jedi history, had come to Coruscant.

Nevertheless, they stated their names, the boy eagerly, and the girl with veiled annoyance. Luke. Leia. As if those assembled didn't already know.

"Thank you," said Master Kenobi. "And why have you come?"

Leia said, "We wish to be trained in the ways of the Force."

His face was kind. "Coming to us as adolescents is not how Jedi are typically trained."

"We know," Luke said.

His sister said, "Usually you abduct children as infants and raise them here. Our parents opted against that path."

Caleb expected a gasp of outrage, a denial, something. Instead, her pronouncement was greeted only by an intense silence. The Council wasn't here to debate Jedi tradition. Her eyes flickered to the faces surrounding them, and he noted the faint crack in her prideful display as she realized her error. The child had thought to school her elders. Typical for that age, he recalled, with another glance to Depa who clearly remembered the same.

"Arrogant your father was, and mistaken in his beliefs." Master Yoda's voice wasn't accusing, only thoughtful. "Untrained younglings may be dangerous to themselves and their families. Their own powers they often cannot control."

"We've been trained," said the boy, undaunted. He stepped forward, raising his hand and showing the Force projection of a sphere, turning to a cube, then to a pyramid. It was a simple exercise taught to the young as a focusing technique. "Our father taught us all sorts of things."

"That's what we're afraid of," said Master Windu.

Leia looked at him, taking in his scarred face. "Then teach us better things. We didn't travel here to fight you. We came because we know we have too much power not to finish our training. We don't intend to be dangerous." The tiny hook inside her words clearly caught the attention of the Council.

"Too old you are," Yoda said. "Just as your father was. Not ready to let go of attachment, not to your mother, or to each other. Led your father to murder and exile it did."

"Lead us somewhere else, then."

"They need training." This was a new voice. Master Tano stood from her seat. This ought to be good. She'd been Skywalker's Padawan, and had defied the Council herself more than once. As far as Caleb knew, she was the only Jedi ever to walk away from the Order and walk back on her own terms. The Council might know where she spent the intervening years, but Caleb didn't. He'd heard every rumor from a forbidden romance with one of the surviving clones to founding her own secret army in the Outer Rim.

"I agree," said Master Kenobi. His voice carried, a little too loud, a little too firm.

Master Windu said, "When they pass the Initiate Trials, they may be taken on as apprentices for more proper guidance." When?

Caleb relaxed. This was theater. The hope on the twins' faces was genuinely surprised, but the rest of the Council must have discussed this in closed session. They had already decided. This public viewing was to allow the rest of the Order to see, and to understand. Caleb appreciated that Depa wrangled him a front row seat, but he could have just watched the recording.

Master Tano said, "I will take Luke as my Padawan. Anakin taught me. I can teach his son." Master Kenobi nodded once.

Small conversations broke out around the room. Caleb leaned over to Depa. "Figures they'd keep the kids in the family. I'll bet you ten credits Master Kenobi will train the girl himself." Jedi were taken from their parents as children, with the permission of those parents, but they formed their own family units, raised as children to the Order then themselves acting as parents and grandparents to the young ones who followed. Caleb could recite his own Jedi lineage back through centuries.

Depa didn't reply. Her eyes stayed focused on her own former master.

Master Yoda quieted the noise with a gesture. "A suitable master Leia will need as well, to teach her the ways of the Force."

Caleb gulped back his smile as Master Kenobi opened his mouth to speak. But instead of requesting the task for himself, he said, "Master Windu has already found an appropriate teacher."

Caleb didn't have much in the way of foresight, but he had enough for his stomach to drop to his boots even before Mace Windu said, "Caleb Dume will train Leia. I feel it will be a good fit for both."

"Agreed," said Master Yoda before Caleb could even sputter out his first indignant reply, which was instantly silenced by a calm, sweet, infuriating smile from Depa. She'd known. Of course she'd known. No doubt she'd suggested it. The stare she gave him told him they both knew he wouldn't dare say a word in front of the Council, much less in front of all the cameras broadcasting this to every Jedi in the galaxy.

"Congratulations, Caleb. You owe me ten credits."

* * *

He'd put on a stock smile, had nodded to the curious onlookers who'd turned to them, and had thanked the ones who offered approval on his finding a suitable Padawan. He stood where he was and waited very patiently for the chance to talk with Depa alone. Among the rest, any emotional outburst would reflect poorly on them both. Alone, he could ask her if she'd lost her damn mind.

An hour later, he finally tugged her arm to a private corner down the hallway, or as private as any corner could be. The Temple always buzzed with people at all hours. Even the city outside their walls seemed less crowded by comparison, which was why Caleb took every chance he could to step out and get a breath of air less congested by an overabundance of serenity. Depa didn't like his excursions, and she was unimpressed by his ability not to get caught causing too much trouble when he did. This had to be her way of getting back at him.

"Depa, I don't like children."

"Children don't like you, either. You'll do fine."

"Am I being punished for something? Is it that thing from the bar? I maintain my emotions were in full control. Master Yoda would have decked that guy." The guy in question possessed eight arms and had been using seven of them to upset the nice Tilosian woman serving the drinks when his inebriated face had come into contact with Caleb's fist.

"You aren't being punished. Training young Jedi is a privilege, even young Jedi who think they know better than you." She patted his arm, looking to any viewers as though she was offering advice and support to her former Padawan. "Perhaps you'll be lucky, and she won't pass the Initiate Trials."

* * *

Leia outshone her brother in their Initiate Trials, though only by a small degree. Her focus was tighter, working through each exercise with a serious determination Caleb found worrying. Luke performed his required tasks with a giddy delight at showing off his powers. Master Tano stood beside Caleb as they observed their new Padawans, her face inscrutable. Caleb had only met Anakin Skywalker once. She'd worked closely with him for some time. Maybe she was reliving difficult memories. Maybe she was regretting her choice. At least she'd had a choice.

He'd had even less luck convincing Master Windu he wasn't a suitable teacher for the girl. Windu had given him a look, one that Depa had adopted and honed during her own time as Caleb's master. "The Council voted that you were the best choice." Caleb noted that the word 'unanimously' could have been dropped into that sentence, and had not been. Others on the High Council agreed Caleb was a poor choice.

He was sure one of them stood next to him now, putting on a smile for the twins as they finished their trials and rejoined them. "You did well. Your parents would be very proud." The layer of sorrow under her words cloaked the victory.

"Thank you," Leia said, then turned her attention to Caleb. For a moment, he could practically read her internal sigh of acceptance. "Did you have any notes for me, Master?"

"You did great, kid. I'd appreciate it if you used my name instead."

She tilted her head in agreement.

Luke asked, "What did you think, Master?"

Tano's smile grew kinder. "I think you've got a lot to learn about focus, but please help me keep from ever shadowing your enthusiasm." She glanced at Caleb. "You may call me Ahsoka when we're not in formal session with the other Jedi."

"Right," said Caleb. "Formal stuff, you should stick with 'Master.'" Leia gave him another look that held just-disguised disappointment, and she tilted her head again in what was barely a nod of agreement.

Luke said, "Do we start our training now?"

"Tomorrow," said Tano. "The arrangement still must be formally approved."

Caleb shared a glance with his future Padawan, and knew they both held the same dwindling hope this situation might yet be avoided. He said, "I could go talk with Master Yoda."

"No," said Tano. "He's too busy to be bothered with minor details."

"I can wait."

"He'll be busy then, too."

He'd already lost. He knew that. Sometime between the arrival of the children on Coruscant and the announcement a few hours later, everyone above him in the hierarchy had decided for him. He didn't have to like it. "Right."

Tano returned her attention to the kids. "Quarters have been arranged for you. You've each been given a room near one of us. Does your ship belong to you, or will someone be returning it to Naboo for you?"

"It's ours," Luke said. "We left our things there."

"Ah," said Caleb. "First lesson. Jedi don't really own much. Possessions make you possessive. We can have everything returned to your mom."

Leia made another face. He learned later that she'd brought a large number of dresses with her, the elegant Naboo fashion famed throughout the galaxy. She hadn't brought them to wear, but to sell in case the pair needed money. She'd been less clear on how that would be arranged. They'd come equipped with knowledge and ideas, and zero experience.

"Come, Luke," Tano said. "I'll show you your room. I can walk you through the basic meditations."

"Father taught us those," Luke said. "See you later, Leia."

"No," Tano said, and this was spoken far more sternly than her previous kind tone. "The two of you will not be training together. The second lesson stems from the first. As you must let go of what you own, you must also let go of what you love." Her voice and her expression remained composed. Caleb couldn't read the flicker of a different emotion he saw in her eyes. Perhaps he'd imagined it.

Luke and Leia stepped closer to each other. They'd been born because a Jedi had refused to surrender what he'd loved. They'd been raised by parents who loved them deeply, and they'd grown in one another's shade since the day of their birth. Master Yoda had been right about that. They were far too old to let go.

He recalled that some masters chose to train their students together, building bonds that way.

Caleb said, "I'll show you your new room, kid. Tell your brother you'll see him tomorrow." He flashed a grin at Tano, who did not return it.

* * *

He blurred through settling his new apprentice into her new room. This was her bed. These were the standard robes all the Padawans wore and this is where she could drop them to be laundered at night. This was the closest 'fresher. Meals were in the dining hall. Did she have any questions? No? Great.

"Where do you live?"

He'd almost slipped away. "Not far." She folded her arms. "I'll show you the way." He led her down the corridor and through another passage. His door looked like all the rest. Leia read the number and nodded. Then she stared at him until he opened the door. "See? Just like yours." He kept his quarters neat, empty of everything unnecessary except for some datapads he'd been reading, and a glass he kept for the occasional late night drink of water. The glass was a pleasing deep blue, the only burst of color in the whole room. Leia's eyes narrowed as she examined it after taking in the rest of the spare space.

"How long have you lived here?"

"Since I was your age."

She looked at the blue glass again. "Father said his room was full of his projects." She was probably just lonely. New world, recently lost her dad. Maybe she wanted to talk about him. Caleb didn't know much about Anakin, and the little he did know had come directly from Master Windu, who had not been a fan.

He dredged up a detail. "He was a good engineer, from what I've heard."

"He was. I'll go back to my room now. Thank you."

"I can show you."

"I'll find my way." She left. Caleb wondered if she was going to shut her door and cry. Even the kids raised here in the Temple had a habit of doing that sometimes during adolescence. Leia hadn't looked like she was sad, merely thoughtful.

He followed her outside, seeing her vanish around the corner. He kept far behind, making sure she went back to the right room and didn't decide to give herself an unguided tour. She found her door without trouble, and he was almost sure she didn't notice him standing just out of sight.

His head hurt.

Depa should have known better than this. Caleb had no business training an apprentice, especially not one as powerful as Skywalker's kid. She wasn't going to see reason any time soon, and she would not be a friendly ear to his complaints.

He turned a different direction and headed towards the door of a friend. Sammo didn't have an apprentice either. Caleb could complain to him, and count on the sympathy he wasn't getting anywhere else. Alternately, Sammo would feel free to tease him and help Caleb get his equilibrium back, another valuable gift.

Caleb tapped on the door, though not too loudly.

Jedi were strongly discouraged from forming strong attachments with others. The twins were a good example of why that rule remained in place. The Order was inclined to turn a blind eye, or even a wistfully amused gaze, on more casual arrangements. Bodies had needs, and most sentient races sought close companionship as a means of maintaining mental health. His friends Sammo and Tai had formed an arrangement: not romantic, not binding, not exclusive, and thus not overtly forbidden. Still, he hated walking in on them.

There was no answer. When he made his way to Tai's door, there was no one home there. Either both were out, or they were busy together. Come to that, he hadn't seen them in a few days. That was almost worth opening the door to see if they were all right. Instead, he engaged the nearest computer terminal and did an inquiry. Sammo Quid and Tai Uzuma were both listed as away from the Temple. Meditative retreat.

He had an unfortunately clear picture of what they were doing instead of meditating. Worse, he knew he was going to remember that picture when he started teaching his Padawan about meditation techniques tomorrow.

* * *

Master Tano woke her apprentice well before first light and had him somewhere in the Temple Caleb couldn't easily locate by the time he and Leia were ready to begin.

"She doesn't want you to train together."

"She'll come around," Leia said. "I can locate them if you want. Luke and I can always find each other."

"Good trick, but no. We'll work on our own. Why don't you show me what you already know?"

"Of course, Master. How much time do we have?" She kept on the polite end of insouciance. Punished. He was being punished. Depa was cross at him and had arranged this to teach him a lesson.

Caleb rubbed his temples, hoping to look as though he was thinking hard rather than fighting back what he suspected would be a ten-year headache. "Just start with the basics, kid."

She was good with meditation stances. He would give her that much. She had admirable control over her telekinesis. She wasn't in as perfect a physical condition as most new Padawans were, but she'd never had need to be. These children had been raised in comfort, not pushed to their limits each day. During hand to hand sparring, as he tested her reflexes against an opponent, he could feel the potential strength in her muscles and core. With some discipline and exercise, Leia would be throwing him into the wall within a month, but not today. He took her legs from under her with a sweep, and watched with some approval as she bounced up instantly from her fall.

"Not bad. How are you with a lightsaber?"

She hesitated. "I'm all right. Luke's better." The admission cost her. She was obviously used to be the better one at most activities. Her brother seemed good-natured enough not to mind, or maybe he'd had to learn equanimity young.

Caleb grabbed a training staff from the wall. "Show me what you've got."

They worked until it was time for a break, which Leia was sure coincided with the same break for her brother. Her steps never faltering, she led Caleb directly to the out of the way atrium Tano had found. She and Luke rested against one wall after what clearly had been an exhausting morning for them, too. Both brightened as they saw Leia. Tano lost her smile the instant she saw Caleb following.

"Tough day?" he asked casually, grabbing a seat on the ground a few feet away.

"It's been great!" said Luke, launching into an excited description of their training regimen for Leia's benefit. Caleb gave half an ear, hoping to pick up some ideas. He'd never wanted to train an apprentice, and hadn't spent any time considering the best way to go about the job. Depa had plucked him right from his training here, and she'd taken him off to war shortly thereafter. These two were unknowns, and he hoped Tano had enough insight into their past from her own training under the same teacher.

The rest of his attention was directed to her now. They had rarely interacted in the past. She was a few years his elder, never in the same groups when they'd been children, absent during much of his adolescence, and operating in far different circles now they were adults. They knew plenty of Jedi in common, but they weren't friends. They'd been amiable enough on the few occasions they'd spoken, and he considered her no different from any other Jedi, even given her allegedly colorful history. Caleb knew he was more apt to notice a pretty face than he ought to be, an interest Depa had warned him against since he'd been fifteen. Tano was gorgeous, but he was positive he'd never so much as looked at her in an inappropriate fashion. All of this taken together meant he was mystified why she glared at him now like she would something smashed on the front viewscreen of her favorite ship: inconsequential yet sticky and in her way.

"We should get back to work," she said abruptly, just as Leia began telling Luke about her own training. She watched both faces fall, staring for a moment at the girl. Her jaw tightening, she added, "If the two of you would like to join us, you may."

Caleb said, "I'm not sure we..." He broke off at the dual stare being directed at him instead. "Fine."

Tano said, "Caleb, would you please retrieve the training lightsabers? I didn't bring enough for everyone."

"On it."

He made his way back to the training area where the younglings worked, nodding as he passed faces he knew. He pulled out two training sabers, then decided on four just in case she'd meant to say she hadn't brought any.

"You appear to be missing an apprentice," Depa said, joining him suddenly and acting as though they'd spent several hours chatting already.

"Just grabbing some equipment. The kids are pretty good with these."

"They're together?"

He shrugged, a difficult action holding while four lightsaber handles. "They wanted to. Master Tano was all right with it. Honestly, I think she's got a better grasp on where to start with them. Skywalker was her teacher, too. She knows his techniques."

"And you know mine."

"I did. It's been a while since I was their age. Was I that short?"

"Shorter." She started to laugh and let out a thick cough instead. She met his eyes. His former Master had developed a chronic breathing problem years ago during a mission to Haruun Kal, courtesy of the planet's toxic volcanic gases. She'd been in remission for months but the past week had brought another flare-up of her symptoms. His stare asked if she'd been to see the medical droids lately. Her return stare said she'd go in her own time. "Bring Leia by my quarters tonight for dinner. I can tell her embarrassing stories about your time as a Padawan learner."

"There's an offer," he said. "She already doesn't have much respect for me."

"As you know, fourteen year olds are famous for showing great respect towards their elders." He frowned at her implied jab, which drew a laugh and a kind hand on his shoulder. "I'll ask Mace to join us. He can tell her about my early days. We were all her age once, even Mace, and I might have a few tales to tell her about him."

"It's a deal."

He hurried back to the atrium, slowing his steps as he neared. He could hear Tano speaking in a low voice, though he couldn't make out her words. He tripped over a few stones he would swear weren't there when he'd left. Tano stopped speaking. The three of them watched him as he stepped out to rejoin them.

"Thank you," she said, taking two lightsabers from his hands and throwing one to Luke. She hadn't brought two for herself, and would have sent him back for more. He wasn't about to ask if that had been intentional.

"Let's go over form," Caleb said. "Leia has some decent moves, but not much in the way of control."

Tano said, "Anakin was always more interested in reacting to the fight in the moment. It's a very intuitive strategy that has served me well."

"And I can't wait to learn more about that technique, but we should start with the basics."

"Do you believe they should learn Vaapad on their first day?"

"No, which is good because I haven't learned it yet, either." Master Windu's signature lightsaber form had always eluded him. Depa had never given Caleb more than a few lessons for him to recognize when he was up against it in order to know he should run away.

This earned a more examining look from Tano. "Fine. You may work them through the basic forms."

The first thing he noticed was how much more graceful his student's motions were when she worked next to her brother. He assumed the fascinated surprise on Tano's face meant Luke was also showing improvement while working with his twin. They would have practiced together at home, learning everything as a pair under their father's inconsistent tutelage. Naturally, their gifts would have developed together, grown as part of one another. Caleb was only guessing. Siblings were uncommon among the Jedi.

He helped Luke steady his stance, then assisted Leia with the position of her left arm. At their age, he'd been off fighting a war, getting his lessons in during the down times between battles. The quick motions from one parry to the next had given him desperately-needed structure when he'd faced down battle droids hours later.

"Use what you know, and know it well enough to use it without thinking," had been the teaching drilled into his head. Motion that came without thought had saved his life.

As soon as they broke for more spontaneous sparring, both children dropped their newly-learned technique, aiming for quick ripostes without form. Tano returned these, using her own capricious style. It worked. She was the Jedi Master and Caleb was just another Knight. He was still certain the kids could do better with more structure, no matter how much his Padawan rolled her eyes.

The hour grew late. Caleb called an end to today's lightsaber lessons. "It's time for dinner, then some work with your meditation."

"We'll join you for dinner," said Master Tano, putting away the training weapons. "You and I can decide what our plan is." She had thawed to him over the course of the day. Maybe they'd just started out in a bad place, what with her grieving her former master and Caleb's less than happy attitude about taking on Leia.

"That will be... Wait, no. Not tonight. Leia and I are meeting Master Billaba and Master Windu for dinner."

Without changing a single muscle on her face or altering one note in her voice, Tano's space-cold chill fell back in place between them. "Of course." She nodded to Leia. "We will see you tomorrow."

Caleb watched her go, noticing she'd left the training sabers. He picked them up. Fine. She didn't like him. He wasn't going to let that affect their work. He hadn't asked for this task, but he wasn't going to do a bad job to get out of the duty. That wouldn't be fair to the girl standing here with him, and also Depa would never stop scolding him if he tried. He wondered if Depa knew she was the voice of his conscience even when she wasn't around. He also wondered if everyone else had the same issue, with their former masters chastising them long after they had parted ways.

As Tano and Luke disappeared from sight, he wondered what the little voice of Anakin Skywalker inside her head told her to do.

* * *

So what do you think is going on?

Additional note: It appears Kanan isn't the only one who can't recognize a blatant lie.


	2. Chapter 2

Caleb had taken meals with Depa in her room many times. They sat on the floor around a low, plain table, a custom she'd adopted from her home world. Leia took in the few decorations lining the walls around them, asking Depa polite questions about the origin of the pieces she saw. From time to time, her eyes dropped to where Master Windu sat.

Dinner was simple, as most meals in the Temple were. Jedi were not supposed to indulge in pleasures of the senses. When they wanted more, a vast city outside these walls boasted every possible culinary delight, as well as the other delights Jedi were meant to eschew. Watching Leia's face as she sampled the nutrient broth and protein bread, it occurred to Caleb that the simple deprivations of a Jedi's life might be enough to convince her she wanted a different path.

"How was your first day?" Depa asked her.

"We're still going over what I've already learned."

"Not everything," Caleb said, and she nodded.

"I'm learning new lightsaber techniques. Your methods are very different from what my father taught."

Master Windu said, "Your father's fighting style was highly idiosyncratic, but effective."

"I remember his early days when he was a Padawan," Depa said. "Such a bright child. Qui-Gon was convinced he was the Chosen One, although I've always believed it's less important to be chosen than to choose." Caleb gave her a tight smile and didn't comment.

Leia said, "The Council didn't want him to train, he told us. Were you afraid of his power?"

"No," said Master Windu. "We believed he was past the age where he could learn to control his own emotions, and we were correct."

"Luke and I are here because of that. I can't say I object. Think of what the Jedi Order would be like if everyone married as they wished." Leia had that tone again, the one that said she was sure she was smarter than the people around her. Caleb found it obnoxious when she addressed the attitude at him, but he would not admit to his amusement at reading the carefully-stilled shock on Master's Windu's face at her brash conviction.

Properly trained in the use of her powers, this kid not only could change the galaxy, but clearly had already begun drawing up detailed plans. Caleb was starting to like her.

"It would be chaos," Windu said, after a pause that stretched a moment too long. "Our path teaches us that tight bonds between two people by necessity exclude all others. Your father's bond to your mother caused him to set the whole of the Jedi Order and the stability of the galaxy itself against his love for her. That doesn't lead to logical decisions built on balanced understanding. That leads to impulses driven by desire. His passions led him to murder."

"Palpatine was a Sith Lord. My father slew him in battle."

"He nearly didn't. He was ready to slay me instead and side with the Chancellor. His love for your mother was a terrible tipping point, and a choice he never should have faced."

"I'm making tea," said Depa abruptly, standing and quickly taking the bowls away. "Leia, you will assist me."

Her attention snapped from Windu to Depa. She got to her feet, taking the bread sullenly. "Father didn't mention the women serving the men."

"Hardly. Master Windu has tried copying my tea preparations for over twenty years and fails every time, and Caleb burns water."

"That was once! One time over a campfire, fourteen years ago!" Grey had laughed at him for a week.

Depa smirked. "I have higher hopes for you, Leia. Come with me." Leia followed her from the small sitting room. This wasn't the first time she'd stepped out to make tea this way. There were times an adolescent benefited from private chats with an understanding adult of the same species and gender. Depa had left young Caleb alone with Master Windu for questions and advice she couldn't offer, usually on the pretext of tea. Leia had a mother, if one very far away from her now, but tonight was Depa's chance to begin the first steps of her own relationship with the girl. Leia might take months to thaw. Depa would light one candle, and she would wait.

Caleb turned to Master Windu. "Maybe we shouldn't tell my apprentice she never should have been born. Not on her first day."

Windu waved his hand. "You can see she's conducted arguments with us inside her own head for years. Better to allow her express her resentments early then let the anger go. That's going to be her biggest struggle. Anakin could never loosen the hold of his anger on his heart. It's a miracle he didn't fall to the Dark Side that day."

Something beckoned inside his words. Caleb knew the official story. For the first time, he questioned if it was the only story. Depa had taken Leia far from them. Nevertheless, he leaned in closer and dropped his voice. "What else happened that day? You know something."

"I know many things you don't," he said, but his face was kind. Master Windu was famed for his strictness, which meant the times he chose to be gentle stood out all the more. His eyes turned to the doorway where the other two had gone. "Skywalker was ready to destroy me. Palpatine had been turning him right under our noses almost since the day he came to us. When he entered the room, I saw the fractures of every possible future. My foresight said he would betray me. But another stepped into the room with him, someone strong in the Force and standing outside of all the futures I'd seen. When Skywalker approached us, he looked back at them before he struck down the Chancellor. I told the High Council. I presume the twins know. Now you know. No one else does."

Caleb sat back, thinking. He was bursting with questions. Depa tolerated that habit, Windu less so. He had to choose his reply. "Thank you for telling me."

Windu nodded. "I think it's better to hear it from me than from your apprentice. I never discovered who joined us, or where they went. By the time I reached the door, they had vanished. Skywalker was a wreck. He wouldn't stay long enough to deal with the bodies of the fallen. I asked him who the stranger was, but he walked away and I never saw him again."

"Good thing they did whatever they did," said Caleb. "Imagine the trouble we'd be in if someone that powerful joined the Sith."

"I do, almost every day." His voice was serious, cutting through Caleb's humor. Windu's face brightened as their companions returned. "Master Billaba may hate my clumsiness with the teamaking, but she is generous with her tea."

Depa shot him a quick look, not taking in the broad compliment, but another glance at Caleb let her know they'd talked. The Council knew. She knew. She'd never told him about the stranger Anakin Skywalker had met, the one who'd changed the course of their lives. Caleb had no reason to know before now. As he took his own cup from Leia, murmuring thanks, he wondered what else he didn't know about Skywalker's disappearance.

* * *

The weeks passed. Training settled into a pattern. Mornings were spent with just him and Leia. In the afternoons, they joined Luke and Master Tano for group work. They agreed the kids needed a good grounding in history and philosophy if they were ever to understand the full nature of becoming Jedi, thus he made a point of taking them to the library every other day. He sat them down with biographies of famous past Jedi and philosophical texts from the same schools of thought Depa had encouraged him to learn about in his own youth. Leia grumbled that she and Luke had already been given plenty of tutoring. She had a good head for numbers and literature, and he had a solid grasp of mechanics and science. She enjoyed debating Caleb, which he used to get her to interact more with her readings. Leia didn't have to agree with the seven principles of Chalactan wisdom, but he made her support her opinions.

Master Tano set them to reading fiction and viewing plays. The reading list she selected included many of the classics, but also cheap holonovels. Caleb didn't understand why. To his surprise, Luke explained. "The important works of literature are pictures of who we think we ought to be. Trashy stories tell us who we are."

"They're not trashy," said Master Tano.

"Mother says they are," Leia said, and her brother nodded. Tano didn't reply, only gave them both half a smirk.

Wisdom from their birth family aside, the twins also received lessons from their extended Jedi families. Master Windu walked Leia through the first levels of a meditation technique he'd been developing, and Depa supplemented the unarmed combat training she was already receiving. Luke regularly visited with Master Kenobi, then returned chatting excitedly about the training droids they employed to help him focus his other senses. They did well in these individual sessions, but the twins thrived most when they combined their powers and their training. Caleb would be happy to let them work together all the time, even step away and let Tano take both as she clearly wished to do.

When he mentioned this to Depa, she quashed the thought.

"Obviously, they have learned to work together, and if you must build from there, do so. However, each child must learn to operate independently of the other. What if one is sent on a mission to Alderaan, and the other to Geonosis?"

"We never get sent anywhere. What does it matter?"

Depa took his arm and led him down an empty corridor. Her voice went soft. "Wheels are turning, Caleb, even if they are rusty and ill-used. Skywalker always sent out ripples wherever he went, and his death has caused new ones. The Senate has begun requesting our help as an overture of peace now that he is dead."

Caleb shook his head. "The Council isn't going to be happy about that. You told me most of them preferred non-involvement. _You_ prefer non-involvement."

"In times of war, yes. We were never meant to be generals, no matter how much you enjoyed being out there fighting. Times are different. The Jedi can guide and aid the galaxy during times of peace."

"This isn't peace. The systems squabble all the time. The Senate has no power."

"But no one is actively trying to kill one another. With Palpatine's murderer dead, they are willing to let us assist in restoring order. Not through arms, but through diplomacy. This is what you've always wished for, Caleb." She took his shoulders. "You must see to it that your Padawan is ready to join us in our new endeavor."

He longed to leave Coruscant, and she knew that. The Jedi Temple was home, and he'd always come back here, but he missed traveling among the stars. "I'll keep training her."

"Continue your work with Luke. I don't mean to suggest they should be kept apart. You may be a good influence on him."

Caleb privately thought he'd never been a good influence on anyone, including himself, but he nodded. "Thanks."

* * *

Tano had left him in charge of both Padawans as she attended a meeting of the High Council. Caleb had brought them to the library for history lessons, insisting they learn about their own past while Master Tano sat in session to discuss their future. They were fidgety today, more than usual, and their tension was rubbing off on him. Twice, he heard the muffled sounds of marching bootsteps close by, but when he looked, he saw only a typical airy corridor with a handful of others walking sedately.

He knew that over time, he and his Padawan would develop a rapport. Some pairs shared a deep emotional connection in which the presence of the other could be sensed lightyears away. On the right days, he was as attuned to Depa's state of mind as he was to his own, and he knew it had been decades since she had needed to exchange words with Master Windu for them to understand one another. Someday, Caleb and Leia would be able to tell each other volumes merely by the blink of one eye.

Today, she was giving him a headache.

With a sigh, he asked, "What's going on?"

Leia asked, "Don't we ever leave the Temple? We've been here for two months and we haven't seen the city at all."

"We don't go out much. After the war, the Jedi chose to focus on inner tranquility and mastery of the Force."

Luke said, "Ahsoka goes out."

"I know. She's also on the Council, and she knows the risks she's running when she ignores them."

Later, he would recognize what had happened. Later, he would remind himself that politicians and their children lived and breathed manipulation of others. Now, Leia said, "You don't go outside because you're scared of the Council?"

"I'm not scared. I do go out sometimes. It's not forbidden."

This earned the instant interest of both Padawans.

Luke asked, "Can we fly shuttles? I want to see one of those transcars up close. Father said they handle like a dream."

Leia said, "I want to see the Senate in session. I know there are viewing rooms for the public. Mother's told me all about it."

Caleb looked between them. "We're not going out."

"You said we could."

"I said some people do."

"You said you do." His Padawan was debating him again, and she had practice. "Therefore as it isn't forbidden, and it's something you've done yourself, there's no reason not to go."

There were many good reasons not to go. Unfortunately, most of them were being overruled by Caleb's memory of the perfect weather this morning in the atrium, which had wafted a nice breeze over the walls bearing the mouthwatering scent of something cooking close by. Two matched faces smiled at him in hope.

A short trip outside would give the kids a little experience of Coruscant. At their age, he'd been traveling from world to world fighting a war. A short walk and lunch from a street vendor weren't half as dangerous as going up against a battalion of droids.

"Get your cloaks."

He considered leaving a note for Tano, then thought better of it. He'd have them back inside in an hour or two at most, unharmed and for once happier with Caleb than with her. Depa would be pleased.

* * *

For his own forays, Caleb often slipped out through one of the lesser-known side doors rather than use the front gate. One look at Leia suggested teaching her that would only cause him bigger headaches later. Instead, he made his way to the entrance with a smile for the guards. "I'm taking the apprentices for a short walk."

The blank masks of the Temple guards stared back at him, and he felt his mind being touched. They couldn't actually read his thoughts, but they could look for attempted falsehood, and found none. The doors were opened. "Thanks." He led the kids outside, his heart giving a giddy jump. There had been no barrier, once. Every step past it felt like a victory. "Come on."

They made their way down streets he knew well. He couldn't take children into many places he frequented. Too much raucous company, too much drinking, too many chances to get into trouble. A walk would be appropriate. The day promised more sunlight, enough to make their simple traveling cloaks too warm.

The smells of a vendor's cart led his footsteps to a familiar stop. He had a few credits in his pockets, and used most of them to get three portions of something fried to a golden crisp and spitted on sticks to eat. Luke finished his in three bites. Leia took a little longer to polish off her own. Caleb had forgotten the bottomless pit stage of adolescence. There were vendors lining the street today. He'd managed to bring them out during one of Coruscant's innumerable festivals. "Here," he said, handing each a single credit. "Find something you like, but that's all we've got."

Leia stared at the credit in her hand then up at Caleb with a raised eyebrow. Rich kid. Luke took her hand. "Come on. I think that stall's got something for two. We can share."

No problem. They could eat a little, look around a little, then go back.

Caleb took the last bite of his own lunch before searching for a receptacle for the stick. Figures moved around them, buying and selling and going on their own business. His peripheral vision picked up something, and he turned to see an eight-armed alien going inside Caleb's favorite bar. Two of the arms had weapons.

It figured. It really did.

"Okay," he said, placing a hand on each Padawan's shoulder. "New plan. You two are going to stand right here and not move. Got it?"

"What's going on?"

"I've got some business to take care of."

"Jedi business?"

"Yeah." Luke believed him. Leia clearly didn't.

"Want help?"

"Stay here. Do not move." He followed Eight Arms inside. Caleb did love this bar. It was rarely crowded, the music was always low, and the owner never minded if Caleb nursed a single glass for four hours. A Jedi had done him a favor in the past, and he liked having one around to keep the other patrons from getting too rowdy.

There was a chance this wouldn't go sour. Maybe the guy was just thirsty.

The Tilosian woman was behind the bar again. As she saw Eight Arms, he raised two of his weapons and said something in a language Caleb didn't speak. She glared at him, folding her arms. One of the weapons discharged towards the ceiling. People lived up there. A stray shot could ruin someone's festival day, and this guy wouldn't even notice.

"Do you really have to come in here?" he asked loudly to get the guy's attention. "Go get drunk somewhere else."

Eight Arms wasn't bright. He turned. Caleb ignited his lightsaber, slicing through the weapon on his left. He'd take the guy down if he had to, but punching him had caused enough trouble. Defensive homicide would earn him a lecture from the full Council.

The alien shouted something. Caleb was ready to deflect the next shot, but he hoped the situation would penetrate into the guy's brain. "Go home. Sleep it off. Don't come back."

His gaze moved past Caleb to the door. The weapon fired, but not at Caleb. He blocked the bolt and severed the gun in two, burning the limb it was grasped in.

As Eight Arms shouted in pain, Caleb risked a glance behind him. He didn't even bother to tell the twins he'd told them to stay put. He felt Eight Arms charge at him. Still looking at the kids, he held out his arm, letting the alien punch himself on a well-placed fist. The mass jolted up Caleb's arm. He turned back to his opponent. "Will you stop now?"

The Tilosian already had her commlink open to call the authorities, whose arrival could be heard down the street.

Eight Arms got up again and lunged. With an annoyed sigh, Caleb hit him again. This time he crumpled to the floor and didn't get up.

"You okay?" he asked the bartender, who nodded.

"Thank you. Did you kill him?" she asked.

Luke said, "You killed him?"

"No. No!" Caleb took a quick chance to check, just in case. The alien was breathing. "He's out. I wish he'd stop coming in here."

The bartender said, "I will press charges this time. You should go."

"Right. Hurry up, kids." They made their way outside, joining the crowded street throng just as the police arrived. Caleb walked slowly and deliberately away from the scene, not running.

Leia said, "Why did you punch him?"

"He wanted to kill me. He fired at you."

"He was asking for a drink."

"You speak that language?"

"Yes." There was her usual note of pride.

"Well, he's not thirsty now, and he needs to learn to ask more politely. The last time he was in there, he was very rude to the barkeep."

Luke stared at him with amazement. "Can you teach us how to punch like that?"

"Sure." Caleb didn't let the pleased warmth show on his face.

* * *

Tano rejoined them after they returned to the Temple. Caleb let the kids tell her about their brief walk through the city, eliding past the fight.

"That sounds like a good outing." She smiled at Luke. "Now, what aren't you telling me?"

Luke froze. Caleb knew that face. He'd given the same trapped in the bright lights stare to Depa when she'd caught him out in a mistruth.

He had the bad feeling he would be right back there as soon as she found out.

* * *

The summons wasn't a surprise. The good news was that he wasn't being brought in front of the full Council. The four Masters in front of him were bad enough. It was a blessing they hadn't called in Master Yoda as well.

Depa said, "You took the Padawans to a bar?"

"No."

Tano said, "They were inside the bar. It is open to debate how they got there."

"We were taking a walk. I saw an incident. I stepped in to stop the situation before it got out of hand."

Master Windu said, "While the Padawans were with you."

"I told them to stay outside."

"You should have stayed outside. Your role was to protect your apprentice, not get into a bar brawl."

"I wasn't going to stand aside. That guy was trouble. He was going in there to shoot up the place because he was mad."

Depa said, "Is it safe to say he was mad because of the last time you hit him?"

"Which I only did because he was being too friendly to someone who didn't want his attention."

"You could have called the authorities."

"You shouldn't have been out there at all," said Master Windu.

"All right," said Master Kenobi, who hadn't said a word before this. "Luke and Leia are fine. The bartender and the other patrons of that establishment which Caleb isn't going to visit any more are also fine. The miscreant has been arrested. The situation is finished and will not happen again."

Master Windu looked at Kenobi. He was the most senior Council member present, and if he chose to override Master Kenobi, he could. Instead he turned his gaze to Caleb. "See that it doesn't." And that was that. He walked away. Caleb had thought he couldn't feel worse, but the disappointment in Depa's eyes as she left the room with Tano struck deep.

To his surprise, instead of the same stern look on Master Kenobi's face, he caught the man barely hiding a laugh. "Master?"

"Sorry. I'm not laughing at any of you. Well, perhaps Ahsoka a little. She knows better. You had Leia standing by during a bar fight. When Ahsoka was a Padawan, Anakin sold her into slavery. Twice, as I recall."

"What?"

"It was a different time. We went on missions back then. You wouldn't remember."

"I do, a little. You're not angry?"

"No. I doubt the others are, either, not really. It's just terrible timing on your part, I'm afraid, and a bit of an ego crush for poor Depa. She's often boasted about you as a paragon of Jedi virtue and restraint."

Caleb blinked. "Me?"

"Unless there's another Caleb running around who used to be her Padawan. She and Mace are both very fond of you. They've told everyone time and again how responsible you are. That's why the Council chose you to teach Leia. A bit of a change from the unorthodox methods we're expecting from Ahsoka. Our hope was the pair of you might meet somewhere in the middle. I didn't expect the middle to be a bar brawl."

"It wasn't a brawl." But from the amusement on the other's face, he saw the words had been intended as a joke. "Really slavery?"

"That's the least of it, to be honest. You know Padawans fought in the war. Anakin and I both had Ahsoka in the thick of danger all the time. I'm sure Depa put you in the middle of plenty of battles."

"Enough."

"And believe me, when she was Mace's Padawan, her life was in peril almost every day. They both would have laughed if you'd said he ought to keep her safely indoors instead. You've heard the story about the mutant akk dogs, I'm sure."

"Many, many times."

"It's easy to forget those days, here inside these walls, even when we lived them. Apprentices are the closest we get to raising children of our own. A parent would do anything for their child, although sometimes the choices we make aren't the best. We'd all like to imagine we were better parents than we were, and that we set better examples than we did. Only when we see the next generation acting out our own follies do we have to face that's not the case. My apprentice murdered the Chancellor. I live in terror of what yours might do some day."

"She's a good kid." The words came automatically, defensively.

"Let's do our best to make sure she becomes a good adult." With that, Kenobi patted his shoulder and left Caleb alone in the room.

* * *

to be continued


	3. Chapter 3

"How much trouble are you in?" Tai asked. She sat beside Caleb on the bench where he was pretending to consider the pattern of the light against stone and was in reality feeling sorry for himself.

He turned and stared at his old friend. "Where have you been?"

"Meditative retreat. Master Yoda had a vision and told me to go." She waved her hand dismissively. "Dull. If he asks, I definitely got more in touch with the Force, and you never heard me say otherwise."

He didn't ask if Sammo had gone with her. He was already sure of the answer. "I don't think I'm in a lot of trouble. Master Tano's ready to kill me. Nothing new there."

Tai laughed. "Don't endanger her Padawan's life next time." She chucked a gentle fist against his shoulder and stood. "See you at dinner tonight? We can tell you all about watching moss grow."

"I wouldn't miss it."

As she walked away, Caleb wondered when she'd heard about his Padawan situation. He hadn't seen either of his friends in weeks, and already one of them knew as much as he did about his misstep? The rumor mill had a lot to answer for.

* * *

That evening, Master Tano called Caleb and Leia to her room, where Luke already waited. She watched them with her usual displeasure at seeing Caleb. "As I would have told you earlier, had you not taken your field trip, I have good news. We have been given an off-world mission. Despite your bad judgment, we still have it."

"We're all going?" Caleb asked, a little too quickly.

Her frown deepened. "Yes. The Council has decided the children should keep training together for now, which means the four of us." She nodded at the kids. "We can take your ship back to Naboo at the same time."

"We're going home?" Luke asked, unable to hide his delight.

"Briefly. Ryloth is close enough to Naboo that we can make a stop on our way back." Seeing their faces, she added, "Yes, we will visit with your mother. I've already informed Padmé of our plans." He couldn't read the look in her eyes. Was she happy for the chance to see an old friend? Sorrowful for an anticipated trip to her former master's grave? Worried that her apprentice would want to stay on his home planet? Tano gave nothing away.

"What's on Ryloth?" Leia asked.

"The Jedi have been asked to provide diplomatic transport to Coruscant. It's basic escort duty, which I thought would be perfect for your first mission."

Ryloth was a rock, but it wasn't here. "When do we leave?"

"In the morning. Get plenty of rest."

* * *

The twins' ship, a sweet J-type skiff, moved gracefully through the sky under Luke's careful piloting. Leia had allowed he was a better pilot than she was, if only by a tiny margin. He had that and lightsabers, although with Caleb's help, Leia was progressing much faster than her brother on the use of form over impulse. He wasn't cut out for teaching, but there was a weird pleasure he felt, and pride as well, when he watched his student advance. Leia was powerful, and he showed her how to channel that power.

Tano avoided him as much as she could on the small craft. Caleb had given up on making nice, and settled for making do. She'd disliked him long before he'd taken the kids out into the city. Maybe she'd hoped the Council would relax the one Padawan rule and allow her to train both twins. Maybe she didn't like his hair. Caleb decided not to let her attitude diminish his enjoyment of this trip.

He let out an easy breath when they made the jump to hyperspace. It had been a long time since he had slipped through dimensions this way. Depa had a special meditation she liked to do when they traveled. He wasn't sure he could even remember it.

"Leia, let's try something."

He got fewer eye-rolls from her as time went on. She sat with him now without fuss, interested in the new lesson. Luke joined her as soon as the navicomputer was settled. Both glanced at Tano, who stood back with her arms folded, a clear gesture that she wasn't interested.

Caleb led the kids through their initial breathing exercises to help induce relaxation. Then he encouraged them to stretch out their thoughts. In hyperspace, a properly-tuned consciousness could reach out in infinite directions. He felt the braided coil of their minds, long used to silent convocation, and watched them slowly unknot into tender threads, spreading out around the ship, out into the stars. Luke's mind was bright, always full of wonder. Leia's was sharp, questioning and intense. Laid bare this way, they were as easy to see as suns, as different from each other as sea and sky, as similar as raindrops.

When they finally dropped out of their meditation, hours later, Tano stood in the same position, still watching them.

Luke got to his feet. "That was amazing. Why didn't you join us, Ahsoka?"

"I don't share my mind willingly," she said. She returned to the cockpit, indicating her apprentice should join her.

Caleb waited until they were gone before turning to Leia. "You did great," he said, instead of asking what the hell that was. Three days together on this ship loomed like a prison sentence.

* * *

The Tann province was wealthy enough to boast two spaceports, almost as many as Lessu's three. Much of his training and education had focused on looking at situations from both inside and outside. From the outside, a backwater planet like Ryloth taking pride in their multiple spaceports outside the capital city was worthy of derisive laughter, given the visitors traveled here from a world teeming with ships and transit and glittering power. From within the world's own spin, rising from the destruction of the Clone War meant determined satisfaction in every step forward.

Caleb thought to mention this lesson to his apprentice, but he watched her face first. Her own planet was technologically advanced yet held to customs which seemed dated and supercilious to outsiders. She wasn't judging the planet they found themselves on, while Caleb was having trouble keeping to his own training. The lesson turned inward. He was the one who hadn't set foot off Coruscant in years.

Their mission was simple. Ryloth had undergone great political turmoil in the recent months, including the unexpected death of one Senator and the assassination of his successor. The Senate had requested the Jedi provide a security detail while escorting the latest Senator to Coruscant. Easy mission. The kids got to see what responsibilities they would have in the future. Caleb got to leave Coruscant for a while. He couldn't imagine they'd run into any trouble.

The spaceport wasn't large, only boasting five hangars, but it was close to their destination. Luke brought them in neatly, performing his landing checks as they docked. The ship might belong to both kids, but it was clear which one loved the little skiff and would miss it.

Caleb emerged from the ship and took a look around. Not much activity here, and he hadn't expected any. This would be a quick port for the richer families to hop a shuttle to another part of the planet, not a major interstellar hub. He spotted two planetary shuttles just right for a day trip over to Lessu to visit Grandma. The next hangar over held a small freighter of a design he hadn't seen before. A maintenance technician was halfway into a panel on the side, muttering and cursing as a fountain of something viscous spewed out.

The tech whistled, and a droid flew over with a spanner, which it placed into an outstretched hand that then disappeared back into the bulk of the ship. The fountain stopped. There was more swearing. Caleb almost worried about rude language in front of the children, but he'd been stationed with soldiers at their age and he'd turned out okay.

"I think that's it," said the muffled voice, which sounded tired. The droid chirped, and the voice groaned. "Already?"

Amusement over, Caleb returned to their ship, where Tano and the Padawans had disembarked. Tano gave a pleasant smile to the dock worker on duty coming towards them with a datapad to fill out. "Thank you," she said, and instantly handed it to Caleb. As he tried to read the unfamiliar language and sort out what information they needed, she said, "We're here to see the new Senator."

That blank on the form was definitely 'Name' he decided, and put his own. 'License' was harder. "Luke, do you have a pilot's license?"

"No?"

"Ah."

Leia said, with a little more tact than she usually spared for him, "I can fill that out, Master." Caleb handed over the datapad to her, and watched as she quickly entered the license for the ship and whatever else the form was asking for, before handing the pad back to him for his approval.

"How many languages do you speak?"

Leia shrugged. "Only three. I can understand seven, and read ten. Mother says language is the key that unlocks understanding." He noticed Tano's smile as she listened.

The maintenance tech from the other ship had climbed down and was wiping her hands on a spare rag. The rest of her exposed skin and work flight suit was covered with the messy liquid that had sprayed out from the other ship. She pointed to the hatch, and the droid went back to work as she walked over.

"We're okay on repairs and fuel," Caleb said before she could start the sales pitch. The last thing they needed was the dock's mechanic pressuring them to get their ship looked at while they were here, for an exorbitant fee and missing parts later.

"Good for you," said the tech, her eyes barely flickering towards him before returning to the port worker. "Tomi?"

"They're here to see the new Senator," said the worker, amusement in his voice. He took the datapad and walked back towards his office.

Tano hesitated a moment. "Apologies. I didn't recognize you from your holo, Senator." She held out her hand but was waved off.

"Let me clean up first."

"Of course. I am Ahsoka Tano. This is my Padawan learner Luke, his sister Leia, and her master Caleb. We've come to provide your security escort to Coruscant."

"Thank you."

Caleb put on his most neutral face. This was a diplomatic mission, even if the diplomat was covered in grease. "It's nice to meet you, Senator."

She turned her head to him. "Yeah. Please don't call me that. I'm not in office yet. 'Hera' is fine." She said something much more softly under her breath in Twi'leki.

Tano said, "We've scheduled our departure for tomorrow. The apprentices will be happy to load your things onto our ship."

Leia gave her a short look which belied the 'happy' part, but Luke followed Hera's line of sight back to the ship.

She asked, "Is that a J-type star skiff? I've never seen one up close."

"Yes," he said, "with a couple of modifications. I've got the hyperdrive fluctuation smoothed out." Luke started rattling off technical specs that Caleb didn't understand, but she clearly did, asking quick questions about gain and torque.

It was a ship. It got them places. He could fly one and do a few minor repairs, and that was all.

Caleb looked to Tano, who said, "Perhaps we should take this conversation elsewhere. I'm sure you have much to do."

"I'm sure," Hera said. "My home isn't far. Come on. Chop!" She shouted the last word. The repair droid closed the panel on the other ship. "We're leaving."

Of course. Most politicians kept a protocol droid. Caleb didn't understand a lot of binary, but he did know enough to hear what the little droid was saying to his owner, enough for his own jaw to hang open for a second before he recovered. Not a protocol droid, then. Definitely not. Beside him as they walked, Leia stifled a surprised giggle.

Caleb took a few slow steps, and tugged on her arm to keep her back with him. Quietly, he asked, "Did you understand what the Senator said a few minutes ago?"

"Something about she's not going to be."

"Right. Thanks." This was supposed to be a simple escort mission, according to the Council. How simple would it be if the person they were escorting didn't intend to go with them?

The house she led them to was enormous. They'd passed the structure during their landing, and Caleb had thought it part of the city rather than one large residence. He braced himself for meeting dozens of servants as soon as they entered, but the place appeared empty.

"There are plenty of guest rooms," Hera said, misreading his curiosity. "You can stay here tonight rather than on your ship if you want. Chopper, show them while I wash this off." The droid chirped rudely and she frowned. "Be nice." Her eyes went to Tano with a quick, tight smile of apology. "The house robots are programmed with their basic functions and nothing else, so he's our only true AI." The frown turned into a glower. "And he needs to learn to be polite if he expects me to take him along." There was another rude chirp, which made Leia laugh before she covered her mouth.

"Are we staying here?" Luke asked.

"We can," Tano said. "You two, bring our gear from the ship. Caleb and I will find out what's going on." The kids hurried off back towards the spaceport while Caleb and Tano followed the droid up to the guest rooms.

"This will be fine. Thank you," she said. He beeped and scooted off.

Caleb glanced around the lushly-appointed bedrooms, each one much larger than his own small room back at the Temple. The fabrics draping the beds and walls spoke of a rich luxury which the children would probably appreciate. Everything was faded and settled from long disuse, clean but old. These weren't rooms kept for frequent visitors. These were museums from another time when the manor bustled with family and guests.

He asked Tano, "What do you know about this mission that I don't? I've met Senators. The old Senator from Ryloth couldn't fit through the doorway." Caleb had never involved himself in politics, and even he knew about the previous incumbent. Taa had been well-known for loving all the indulgences his life had to offer, and had died a few months ago mid-indulgence. According to rumor, the young lady had been quite upset by this, but had not been held accountable for his death by anyone. "How did the same people who elected him vote for her?" He jerked his thumb at the hallway.

"They didn't," said the voice from the hallway. Hera came to the doorway. She'd cleaned up quickly, donning another jumpsuit instead of something formal. "We were in the midst of the election when Senator Taa died. My father was the other candidate, and won by default. He was assassinated three weeks ago." That explained much of the tight undercurrent of anger he'd felt from her since the spaceport.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Caleb said. "Did they catch the killer?"

She nodded. "Almost immediately."

"You do plan on serving out your term," Tano said, with half a question in her voice.

The woman shrugged. "I agreed to be his second on the ballot this time. My father ran against Taa every few years as the token opposition. He was never expected to win. He definitely wasn't supposed to die." Sorrow came through then, carefully concealed and quickly buried again, and her stance told them not to pry further.

"Then we'll keep to our schedule," said Tano. "We will be happy to stay here tonight and assist with whatever preparations remain. Tomorrow, we will fly to Naboo and switch ships."

"Why?"

"The ship we came in belongs to the twins' mother. We are returning it to her and can seek passage aboard another ship from Naboo."

"We could just take mine. I'll need a ship when I'm on Coruscant, right?"

"If you prefer. No one will force you to go to Coruscant if you don't want to. You do not have to consider escaping. You can simply resign."

Hera folded her arms. "I thought reading minds was considered rude."

"I didn't have to read yours. I was making an educated guess."

"I'm not going to escape. I said I'd do this. I'll go with you. One of you can come aboard with me if you don't believe me." Something went out of her shoulders. "I'll have the kitchen robots get a meal together. If you have any dietary needs, let me know and I'll add it to the program."

Tano gestured to him and went to meet the returning children. Caleb followed Hera towards the kitchen.

"Why no AIs?" Caleb couldn't help himself. Questions were like breathing. He couldn't stop either. "No droids except one in a place this big?"

"My father believed any entity capable of making its own decisions should not be subject to the whims of another. True droids can feel fear, and they can have their own desires. Giving one an order it didn't want to follow of its own free will would be the same as keeping a slave."

Part of him wondered. Ryloth had been devastated by the droid army during the war. Not everyone was ready to fill their homes with programmed servants who reminded them of the ones who'd attempted genocide. "And the droid you do own?"

She shrugged. "He's family, not property. He doesn't have to do anything, and he knows it, but he likes having something to complain about." Her smile was both genuine and fond. "Here." She led him to the control station for the kitchen staff. He could see they were clearly robots, with no more self-awareness than his boots. Having grown up around droids, Caleb found their soulless stares creepy.

Tano's species had a few food intolerances, which he listed for the kitchen program. Caleb himself had never met a meal he wasn't willing to try except the one time Big Mouth tried to get him to eat live grubworms. "Thanks. Do you have a communications relay I could use? I'd like to inform my superiors that we've arrived safely."

"Down the corridor, middle doorway."

Caleb found the right room and twiddled with the system until he got it operational. He sent a quick burst message back to Coruscant, terse with facts instead of the questions bothering him about this mission.

* * *

Dinner was far more complicated than he'd expected, with several courses featuring items he'd never seen before. Robots whisked dishes in and out of the large dining room in a whirl of motion around them while the droid stood charging in one corner. Caleb couldn't get past the feeling it was glaring at him.

"Sorry," Hera said, watching the confusion on their faces. "The stores need to be used up before we leave, and I thought I'd try getting in some practice at hosting before I'm expected to do this every day."

"Your father was involved in politics for a long time," said Tano, head gracefully dodging a quick robotic arm holding a plate of tiny pastries. "He didn't entertain?"

"He may have. I haven't been home much in the last few years." She put a pastry on her own plate, clearly making an effort to remember which fork was which.

Beside him, Leia cut into her own food with every sign of refinement Caleb himself had never felt. He'd been taught basic etiquette, but his apprentice had been raised from birth to know which spoon was used to crack open which soft-boiled dainty. He followed her lead while making an attempt not to look like he was following her lead.

Luke asked, "Was the ship next to ours your freighter?"

"Yes. I salvaged the frame and built the rest." Behind her there was an annoyed chirp. " _We_ built it," she corrected. Once again, Luke launched into an animated discussion with her about strut capacities and flow inhibitors. Caleb stopped trying to understand and focused on his soup. He understood soup. Soup and lightsabers. No wonder he'd never picked a path to focus on. He should have become a Temple Guard.

"You're eating that wrong," Leia said quietly.

"What?"

"You're holding your spoon in your primary sword hand. It's a deadly insult."

"Sorry." He switched hands, then had trouble navigating it to the bowl. He'd practiced with his lightsaber using this hand, never eating his dinner. The spoon rose unsteadily. Caleb caught her amusement. An insight came to him. "You made that up." Leia grinned around her own spoon.

It would be highly inappropriate to start a food fight with the teenager next to him, especially during a diplomatic function. He was above such tomfoolery, and he was supposed to be demonstrating better behavior than that. Also, he suspected she would win. The temptation was almost too strong to resist.

He noticed Tano's focused expression as she ignored the pilots' chatter and instead watched Caleb and Leia.

"We should figure out who's leaving in which ship tomorrow," he said to her, to break her stare. "It sounds like these two want to trade seats."

"Sorry," Hera said. "No one flies my ship except me. Nothing personal. I've made too many modifications. You can ride along with me if you want to see her in action."

"As soon as we transfer our ship. I can't wait to see it," he said, which was the answer of a diplomat's kid who didn't want to give up his last chance to fly his own baby home.

The 'bots brought yet more dishes, which even Hera frowned at without recognition. Caleb gave up. He stood, and as respectfully as he could manage, said, "Thank you for the meal and the company. I'm going to retire for the evening." He gave Leia a glance. "Don't stay up too late."

She'd already settled into her annoyed face as she'd made to rise with him. His words caught her off-guard, and for a moment, Leia was just another gangly kid with powers like any other Padawan fresh from the Temple. She sat down again, a little hard, and recomposed herself in moments, but he'd seen.

"Of course, Master. Good night."

He followed what he remembered as his path back to the room he'd been given for the night. As soon as the door shut, he knew his mind was too restless for meditation. The others would be at dinner for some time, and he'd as good as told Leia she could do as she pleased the rest of the night. The likelihood she would take that opportunity to knock on Caleb's door for more training was remote.

The communications room wasn't far. He typed in Depa's personal code. Moments later, a small blue hologram appeared in front of him. "Caleb? Is something wrong?"

"No. We arrived a little while ago. Everything's fine. We'll spend the night here and be on our way in the morning. I wanted to let you know."

"Good." She coughed, louder than she normally did.

"You're going to see the medical droids about that, right? I don't have to call Master Windu and ask him to levitate you there again?"

She made a face. "The medicine tastes like ship's oil. But yes, I'll go by this evening. I promise."

"I appreciate that. Depa?"

"Yes?"

Other questions had been itching at him. "Why were we sent on this mission?"

"Because you wanted to go. You've told me you missed traveling."

"And it's complete coincidence that my Padawan and her brother, who recently lost their dad, were sent to retrieve someone who just lost her own father."

Depa said, "That gives them common ground, then."

"Hell of an awkward conversation starter." It wasn't as if Caleb could commiserate. He had no memories of his own parents. The closest he'd had to a father was Master Windu, who was far more like a grumpy grandpa. His not-mom stood in front of him now, her hologram giving off a familiar air of weary yet affectionate patience.

"Travel in silence if you prefer. Just bring her back to Coruscant safely. Caleb?"

"Yeah?"

"Ahsoka requested the mission. I believe she wanted a chance for your Padawans to see their mother again along the way, perhaps to avoid some of the problems we had with Anakin. She knew about the Senator's situation, which you'd know if the two of you talked with each other." The mild reproach hit home, and he wanted to push back. He hadn't been fully briefed on the mission, not even by Master Windu who'd been acquainted with the elder Syndulla and would have known about his sudden death. But it was Tano's mission, and her job to tell Caleb what information he needed for them to successfully complete their task.

The core issue was obvious. "Tano doesn't like me. She won't tell me why, or what I can do to fix things."

"And you've asked her?"

He paused. "I'll ask her."

As he emerged from the room, his senses told him he wasn't alone. Someone else headed to their own room? One or both of the apprentices practicing their stealth by sneaking up on Caleb? He almost called out, but thought better of it. He ought to return to his room and try to regain some calm. Instead he followed the path of the corridor, keeping alert for anyone else. This giant manor was a bit spooky, Caleb admitted to himself. He was used to the Temple, bustling with Jedi and droids at all hours. This place felt like a tomb.

He emerged onto a balcony overlooking the courtyard. A Y-Wing sat crumpled to the side. He'd noticed it when they'd arrived. The pilot was long since gone, and if the wreck was anything to go by, not on his or her legs.

Ryloth's dry air cooled him now, the night desert air a blessing after the heat of the day and the confinement of their passage here. Caleb had heard stories from Master Windu, but his mental landscape of this world differed from the high cliffs and wind-eroded terrain he'd seen. Much like the house, Ryloth felt curiously empty, a void where there ought to be laughing children and serious adults. Other provinces must be more populated, he reasoned. The ill-fated elder Syndulla had been an extremist even when Master Windu had met him years ago. That kind of mind was often drawn to the wastelands, wide open under the unforgiving stars.

The Outer Rim.

Without meaning to, he'd fallen into a reflective state while watching the night sky. His body stood rock-still, hands cool on the balustrade. His spirit wandered, drawn out by something larger, a crouching darkness he recognized as a discordant song always there, always at the far reaches of his own mind, growing now. Something was coming.

A noise startled him from behind, and his hand was on his lightsaber without thought. Not attacking, never attacking until he knew, but a heart-pounding defense as the blade came up between Caleb and whatever had been tracking him.

Tano stood there, her hands on her own lightsabers but not yet taking them from her belt.

He took a breath and doused the blade. "Sorry. You surprised me."

"I see that." She joined him at the balcony, her eyes straying to the crashed ship. She'd been the one following him.

His calm broken, the nagging feeling returned to the back of his mind. Caleb let it go. "You don't like me."

She let a long pause hang before she answered. "No."

"Did I do something to offend you? I can't apologize if I don't know what I did. I didn't mean to endanger the kids, and I'm sorry about that, but you hated me long before we set foot outside the Temple."

She turned her face to him, and for the first time, he could see the carefully-concealed anger she'd spent these last weeks hiding from him. He almost stepped away in fear. Her face settled again as she came to a decision.

"I don't like spies."

He turned the sentence around in his head, and still couldn't make it fit. "What?"

"I am aware the Council sent you to spy on me. I don't have to like it, or you."

His confusion deepened. "You might be aware of it, but I'm not. What in the hell are you talking about?"

Her anger returned, not the dangerous fury of a Sith but the righteous outrage of the innocent wronged. "Don't play stupid. You sent a report back."

She must have checked the signal destination after he'd left. His own annoyance rose. "I was talking to Depa. She's my friend."

Her face and tone didn't change. "Naturally. That's why they asked you. Speaking with Master Billaba and Master Windu wouldn't look suspicious, but the Council could still be certain you were their man."

He threw up his hands. "Look, I don't know what story you've come up with in your head, but I don't want any part of it. I'm not spying on you. Anyway, why would the Council want to send a spy? You're on the Council!"

"It's no secret they don't trust me. They never have. I was given a seat to keep me in line, and they're bitter it didn't work. I'm sure they've offered you my position once you've invented enough evidence for them to justify removing me from the Order!"

Paranoia was a bad look on anyone. On another Jedi, especially one he was sure could clean the floor with him, it was frightening. Rather than lash out, give in either to that fear or to the wounded anger he felt at her accusation, Caleb reached inside himself for the cool peace he'd felt a few minutes ago. "You're mistaken. I'm no spy."

She shook her head, rejecting his words. "I requested to train both children. I know their family, and I know their abilities. Master Windu didn't want me to train either of the twins. He would only be appeased if you were given the task of training one."

Caleb allowed himself to digest her accusations. He'd been forced into this situation without input, and had believed his unwilling involvement came because Depa intended him to complete the last stage of his own growth whether he wanted to or not. Tano was certain he'd been sent to watch her. No wonder she kept her distance. Master Windu had assured any Jedi taking on Leia as a Padawan would have to deal with Tano's suspicions, all of out Windu's own desire to protect the children from the mistakes the Order made with their father.

Thanks, he thought wryly.

"I'm not here to watch you, nor to run back to the Council to tattle on you like when we were younglings. It's your business if you believe me or not, but it's the truth."

"So you say." At the very edge of her words, he could hear her confidence wavering. She'd been carrying this burden alone for a long time, feeling judgmental eyes on her from her peers, perhaps even from her friend Master Kenobi. Paranoia or a result of her bad previous experiences, it didn't matter now. She'd been in pain from the loss of her friend Skywalker and from the lack of trust she'd felt from her colleagues, and she had reasons for assuming Caleb was a willing partner to the latter pain. No wonder she hated him.

"He's not a spy," Leia said.

They both turned. She and Luke stood on the balcony, a few paces away. He hadn't heard or even sensed either one. "How long have you been there?" Tano asked them, eyes flicking to Caleb then back to the kids.

Leia shrugged. Luke said, "A few minutes."

Caleb couldn't stop his grin. "You're getting better at stealth. Good job."

Tano said, "Eavesdropping isn't polite."

Leia said, "It's useful. We've been listening in to conversations since we were little. People didn't think we would pay attention if we were in the room playing." She tilted her head towards Caleb. "I've been watching him for weeks. He's not spying on us."

"See?" He smiled at Tano a little too widely.

"He's not clever or subtle enough to be a spy."

Caleb's head snapped back to Leia. "Some day soon, you and I need to have a talk about respecting your elders."

The look she gave him in reply suggested he might not come out the winner of that conversation. "What I meant," she said, with an edge of belated diplomacy, "is that Master Caleb is incredibly honest. He's no more a spy than he is a politician. He might not share the full story, but he's no liar."

Taken aback, he said, "Thank you."

Tano stared between them. "How certain are you?"

Leia said, "Completely." They watched each other for a long moment. Luke broke away from his sister and came over to the balcony, leaning over the edge, indifferent to the conflict beside him. He glanced at Caleb and shrugged.

"Fine," Tano said, voice tight. "Caleb, my apologies. I let my own suspicions cloud my judgement of your intentions. Fortunately, your Padawan's mind was more open than mine. She trusts you. I will trust you as well."

"Thanks." Realizing she was using their exchange as a lesson for the kids, he added, "Completely forgiven, Master Tano."

"I'd prefer you call me Ahsoka."

He dipped his head. "Ahsoka, I understand why you would think I wasn't being honest. I don't understand why I was brought into this situation, but I'd like to hear your insight. It sounds like you know a lot more than I do about what's going on."

"Soon," she said, and the word wasn't a promise but he would have to take what he could. She held out her hand, and after a moment, he clasped it.

There was a quiet cough from the door. Hera waited there, a bit amused. Had everyone been listening in on his conversations tonight? And he was supposed to be the spy? He caught the mirth in her glance as she said, "We could have had dinner out here if you'd said."

"I was getting some fresh air," Caleb said. "Suddenly it was a party."

She moved past him to where Luke stood. Luke asked, "Why is that ship there?"

"It's a reminder of the war, a memorial to the Republic soldiers who gave their lives to help free Ryloth from the Separatists. Would you like to take a closer look?"

"Sure!"

Hera nodded to Leia. "Come with us. The engine design on the old Y-Wings is really interesting." She gave Caleb and Ahsoka another amused look. "Your parents need to talk."

Leia made a noise in her throat, heir to a thousand boring conversations about ships with her brother, but followed the pair regardless.

Caleb watched them go. "I believe that woman has a very mistaken impression of our relationship."

"Don't worry. I've already disabused her of any confusion. She's teasing you."

He didn't want to know how or why that conversation happened. He pinched his nose, thinking. "You chose Luke as your apprentice, and gave me Leia. Why?"

"I thought that would be obvious. He has more power than she does, much like their father. I wanted to help him focus those powers."

"Leia's got power, too."

"She also has a personality you could bend kyber crystals around."

There came the back half of the bantha. "You assumed I would influence Luke more."

"I did." Given the same situation, he'd have made the same call.

Below them, the kids came into the courtyard, Luke bounding with curiosity at the wrecked ship, Leia sauntering behind with less enthusiasm. She didn't glance up at them, but Caleb was sure that was because she'd deliberately chosen to ignore him and wanted to let him know she was deliberately ignoring him.

For a brief moment, the otherwise empty courtyard was overlaid with another scene: several young Twi'leks running around at play, their adult caretakers busy in the small garden, or speaking at leisure close by. Behind him, he felt the throng of dozens more at work. He blinked, and the ghosts vanished.

He turned to Ahsoka. "Did you just feel something very strange?"

Her hand gripped the balustrade with a knuckle-paling hold. She didn't answer, still caught in a trance. Caleb changed his stance, allowing his colleague to follow the vision to its conclusion while he stood close by to prevent her from falling.

A few moments later, she snapped out of it, face drawing into concern. Below them, the kids examined the Y-Wing, oblivious to what had transpired, while Hera showed Luke the remains of the engine.

"What was that?" Caleb asked. "Future? Past?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "Neither. Have you ever encountered a time squeeze?" At his blank look, she continued. "We live in one ever-moving time frame which we take to be reality. There are breaking points where other paths can splinter off instead, single decisions which have huge impact."

"Shatterpoints. Master Windu talks about them." Windu's gift was the identification of the weak spots in the crystal structure of reality, with complete confidence of the outcome of actions taken at those moments. A lifetime of strict training allowed him to strike at that single point to achieve his victory condition. Depa and Caleb lacked his gift but underwent training under him to develop their foresight and to examine the past for patterns.

Ahsoka said, "The timelines which could have happened did happen somewhere else. Master Windu can feel his way along those, but sometimes they press in close to our own, so close those in the right frame of mind can see them. At times, the Temple on Coruscant presses in with soldiers and guards, other times it sits hollow and empty even when it should be filled with souls." She indicated the courtyard. "In a different timeline, this manor would be thriving with people."

"So what happened to them in this one?"

She didn't answer.

* * *

to be continued


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Friendly reminder about the warnings at the front of this story.

* * *

Hours later and with no more visits from strange ghosts, Caleb finished his meditation. With the insights he'd gained during his trance state, he found himself unable to sleep. He did a quick calculation, and understood the time change between this area of Ryloth and the Jedi Temple on Coruscant meant he'd usually be sitting down to an evening meal now.

He dialed in Depa's private line and waited for her to respond. Her tired face smiled at him from the blue hologram. Maybe he'd misjudged the math after all. "Did I catch you at bedtime?"

"No. It's been a long day. Did you need something? Was Master Tano mean to you again?" The teasing was harsher than usual. Caleb watched her face again, worried. "Sorry," Depa said, catching his frown. "What did you need?"

"You said to ask Ahsoka why she hated me. She was under the impression I was sent by the Council to watch her every move. We talked, and she no longer thinks I'm a spy reporting back to you on her movements."

"There you go. It was a misunderstanding."

"Was it?"

"What are you asking?"

"You always said you liked when I asked questions. I'm asking now. Was I given Leia as a Padawan because you wanted me to keep an eye on Ahsoka and the twins?"

She didn't reply, and his breath caught as hard as hers so often did.

"Depa?"

"The answer you're seeking is more complicated than a yes or no. Yes, the reason you were chosen for the task was because I trust you, and so does Mace. We wanted someone we could trust completely when dealing with two such powerful children. No, we didn't intend for you to report Master Tano's activities. I assumed if she acted in a manner that concerned you, you'd bring it up to me on your own. Which you did." The blue hologram flickered.

The tightness in his chest didn't loosen. "I don't like being lied to."

"I have never lied to you, Caleb. It was well past time for you to take on an apprentice. An opportunity presented herself in the middle of the Council chamber."

Depa could have taken Leia on as her own Padawan. Any of the other Masters could have, and Ahsoka would have known for certain they didn't trust her. Better to choose a trustworthy pawn, one everyone knew wasn't clever enough to be a real spy, who would run home to Mother at the first sign of trouble.

"I need some time to think because for the first time in fifteen years, I believe you are lying to me," was what he wanted to tell her. Instead, Caleb said, "Thanks for the explanation. Get some rest. I'll see you in a few days."

"Have a safe journey. I'll see you soon." She flickered again and was gone.

As soon as Depa disappeared from his view, second thoughts ate at him. He was overreacting. He'd let Ahsoka's suspicions and Leia's off-hand insult sting his pride, and pride was one of many things a Jedi ought lose attachment to. Depa said she trusted him. Master Windu trusted him. His brief encounter with the shadows of the other timeline was making him jump at his own shadows.

He should have asked Depa about that instead.

The communications room boasted several computer terminals. He soon managed to look up a recent history of this planet. He knew about their part in the Clone Wars, subject to multiple blockades and near-starvation conditions. He hadn't seen anything in the HoloNews about the disease which had ravished the population five years ago. That should have made headlines everywhere, but he found few references outside of Ryloth's own media. The virus had spread like fire through the Twi'lek population before strict quarantines had allowed it to extinguish along with the dead. No wonder their host didn't grieve her father as visibly as Caleb expected. What was one more death among one hundred million?

He stepped out from the room, a confusion of questions leaving him more muddled than he'd been when he'd stepped inside.

"Making more calls?" Hera stood at the far end of the hallway. He heard the kids in another room: Luke's chatter indistinct but excited, and his sister's answering amusement.

"Yes. I should have asked."

"It's fine. I need to put the communications system into lockdown before we leave tomorrow. I've got most of the other functions going into hibernate."

"No one watching the house while you're away?" He saw the flash of emotion cross her face before she covered it, and he remembered his searches. "Sorry. I didn't realize how many people had died here a few years ago. It didn't make the news back home."

"Most of the galaxy doesn't care what happens to Ryloth as long as the spice exports aren't affected. The spice miners weren't afflicted, and the refineries weren't touched."

"Were you here?" He'd stepped down the hallway so as not to shout their conversation, and realized he was standing much closer than he'd intended. As she shook her head, he felt the movement of the air.

"I was off-world. My mother died. So did a lot of our friends. My father spent the rest of his life convinced it was some kind of biological attack." She smiled fondly and sadly. "I think blaming someone else helped him through his grief. He talked the ear off anyone who would listen. He would have spent his entire Senate term spouting his conspiracy theories."

"You miss him a lot."

"I do."

Caleb had no words of comfort or wisdom. On the other side of the coin, not everyone wanted sage advice. Some just wanted an ear, and as someone who'd spent his life asking questions, Caleb had also developed the much rarer skill of listening.

"Why don't you tell me about him?"

Her mouth quirked. "I thought you were headed to bed a while ago."

"I haven't had the chance to travel in a long time, and I forgot how bad space lag is. I won't be able to sleep for hours. I'm all ears."

* * *

Morning found them in the manor's kitchen, sitting at a comfortable table shoved up against one corner. The surface boasted the remains between them of a much simpler meal than dinner had been, and the last of the pot of caf they'd brewed two hours ago. The kitchen robots sat idly in their charging docks against the wall, already darkened in their low power modes where they'd stay for the next several months while the cleaning robots hummed in their own eternal rounds.

As the sunlight crept in through the kitchen windows, Caleb felt belated guilt at keeping Hera up all night, considering the journey they were taking today. He could sleep on his ship, but she had planned on piloting hers. The night had flown by, deep in the sort of conversation that at the time seemed profound.

She'd been flying since she was old enough to sneak into ships at the spaceport, and now she ran her own private chartered supply and delivery service. Caleb had taken as many piloting lessons as he could back when he'd been out in the galaxy, but once the Order had retreated within the walls of the Temple, those lessons had ended. She read technical manuals, fictional dramas, and philosophical texts with equal voracity to pass the time during her long cargo hauls. Caleb found it fascinating to talk with someone who wasn't coming at the same texts from the perspective of a Jedi. She had rebuilt her irritating astromech from the ruined husk she'd found inside the wrecked ship, part as a personal engineering project and part to cobble together a friend. Caleb had been around droids his entire life, but had never before last night had to ask one to stop poking him, he really meant it, quit it! She'd agreed to be listed on the Senatorial ballot under her father's name to keep her end of the bargain that if she showed more interest in politics, he'd stop pressuring her to get married. Caleb had known since he was five years old that he would never marry. It had not occurred to him until about half a pot of caf ago that some people might choose to marry solely for the opportunity to have rambling conversations like this with the same person all the time.

The lack of sleep was worth every minute, even if all he had after they cleared off the breakfast dishes was a wistful curiosity at those other timelines pressing in with hints of different paths and other lives.

He reminded himself she'd be living on Coruscant for some time. She'd have Senate duties, and he'd have his own work back at the Temple, but if Depa was right, the Order would be working with the Senate going forward. Opportunities might present themselves for further diplomatic missions or even the occasional friendly chat.

He found it difficult to prevent the smile that formed when he considered splinters of a future where they worked together from time to time.

Despite their typical mornings back on Coruscant when Caleb had to rouse Leia from her bed over her protests, both kids were up with the sunrise, ready for today's visit to their own home. The kitchen filled with their chatter over the last of the warm bread. Ahsoka dragged in not long after, gazing longingly at the empty caf pot, her own space lag very apparent.

"When did you wake up?" she asked Caleb, as Hera took pity on her and set another pot to brew. "You're never out of bed this early."

"Couldn't sleep."

She glanced at Hera. "He didn't keep you up all night, did he?"

"I've flown on a lot less sleep than this. Besides, Caleb helped me get the house systems into hibernation mode. My things are already aboard my ship. We can leave as soon as you're ready."

Part of him was glad they would soon be on their way. Another part thought back to the delight in Hera's laugh as they'd chatted about Eldorn's Logical Paradox, and wished they were staying one more day.

* * *

Ahsoka joined Hera aboard her ship, leaving Caleb to accompany the twins on theirs before their rendezvous on Naboo. He chose to take it as a sign Ahsoka had decided to trust him, and if she was willing to let bygones fade into the past, he'd do the same.

He stayed in the cockpit with the kids as they lifted off, enjoying the excited energy radiating from both. Attachment was strongly discouraged. It compromised clarity and led to impossible decisions such as the one their father had faced. Going forward, Caleb and Ahsoka would have to teach their apprentices to let go of the strong emotions that bound them to their family, even to each other. Today, they were headed home to see their mother, and whatever lessons they still had to learn, he wouldn't begrudge them that happiness. The Council had already relented far more than usual by allowing the pair to train together. Caleb wasn't sure what their full reasoning might be, had never been given cause to doubt their judgement prior to this point, and intended to ask far more questions when they finally returned to the Temple.

The comforting blue of hyperspace washed over them. Caleb covered a yawn. "I'll be in the back. Come get me when we land."

"Sure," Luke said, but Leia watched him with an amused smirk. Caleb chose to ignore this and went to take a quick nap. Naboo was only a short hop from Ryloth, just enough for him to recharge.

The moment his head touched the bunk, he was overcome with a wave of nausea and a palm-sweating sense of unease. For a moment, he lay there, wondering if something he'd eaten was disagreeing with him. No. This wasn't illness.

He sat up, dizzy and gasping in a pain that had nothing to do with his limbs.

Fear clenched around his heart until he dragged himself from the bunk back to the cockpit of the small ship. Luke had gone very pale. Leia sat beside him in her own seat, face drawn into an unhappy mask. "You guys felt that, too?"

"What was it?" Luke asked.

"I don't know." Caleb reached out with his powers into the void. He sensed the brush of the two bright minds beside him, sensed nearby in the same hyperspace lane the minds of the two women aboard the other ship, one in turmoil. He pushed past and out, seeking some kind of answer, finding worlds full of life, but so many also filled with chaos and terror. "Contact the other ship."

Leia sent a quick message over. Hera appeared, just the top half of her body in a flickering blue hologram. "Your girlfriend just fainted."

He nearly snapped at her for the joke, then reconsidered. If Hera felt safe teasing him now, she'd already checked that Ahsoka was all right. Nonetheless, he asked, "How is she?"

"Resting. She says she feels like she was hit by a freighter. I take it she wasn't the only one?"

"No."

"Our ETA for Naboo is two hours. Unless you're really worried, let's regroup there. I'll keep an eye on your friend."

"Thanks."

"My long-range comms are out again." She glanced over her shoulder with a glare where he was sure her astromech worked on the problem. "When we arrive, you'll have to contact them for both of us."

The hologram vanished. Caleb watched the kids, who looked back at him as if expecting him to explain what was happening. He was the adult. Now there was a terrible thought. "Leia, can you please put in a call to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant?" He gave her the contact information, then stood in growing worry as the communicator refused to connect. Perhaps everyone had felt the same disturbance in the Force, and the Council had called a mandatory emergency meeting. When it became clear there would be no answer, Caleb closed the channel.

He looked at his Padawan. Her usual confidence covered the deep concern he sensed in her. "All right. We'll go about this a different way. Tell me what you felt. Maybe we can sort out what happened."

"You know how it feels to be in the Temple, with everyone around you, and you can sense all the minds in the building, and out to the city? It felt like that, only everyone was scared."

Luke said, "People died. I felt them wink out like stars. It's still happening. Can't you feel it?"

He could. With the initial surge no longer overloading his senses, Caleb felt a wave unrolling over planet after planet, minds calling out in fear as they perished. He could put an arm's distance between himself and the pain, had done so without thinking. No wonder Ahsoka had fainted. Her own powers were much stronger than his, and far better trained than Luke's or Leia's. The other Masters must be just as bad off.

What kind of catastrophe had occurred? Caleb could wrap his mind around a whole planet's death. A star might go supernova, although usually there was plenty of warning first. A large meteor might strike, destroying a biome in a day. There had even been rumors back during the Clone War that the Separatists planned some kind of terrible doomsday weapon that, once built, would have the capacity to wipe out a world. Depa had dismissed the rumor as a scare tactic designed to create confusion and panic. She'd reassured her anxious young apprentice that no one could destroy a planet, then she'd told him to go get some sleep.

Caleb would feel a lot better if he could get that same reassurance from her now. He tried dialing in her personal number. Nothing.

Just yesterday, he'd read up on the disaster on Ryloth. Mass deaths didn't always mean mass destruction. Not willing to say what was on his mind yet, Caleb went to another terminal. The HoloNews feeds were all inactive, which worried him even more. Instead, he sent a search out within the static library web, looking for other instances of high-mortality disease. If one world could be devastated without a peep from the wider galaxy, had there been others?

A weird pit opened inside him as his exploration continued. The Temple was a sanctuary, but he'd always believed they paid attention to current events. Jedi were healers and teachers. Why hadn't he heard about the high death count on Kashyyyk from a quick-acting and deadly bacteria eight years ago, or how a tenth of Rodia's home population had perished within a few months, or that Lasan had been utterly wiped out by a disease that had never even been identified? Why was the complete annihilation of species not shouted from every console? Many Jedi were originally from some of these worlds. Why hadn't they stormed the Council Room demanding answers?

He closed the terminal after another abortive attempt to check the news.

"What's happened?" Leia asked.

"I wish I knew."

* * *

They emerged from hyperspace not far from the planet, and were immediately hailed. Caleb let Leia answer, assuming Naboo security would have a much better disposition towards Naboo royalty. "Identify yourself."

"This is the _Morning Star_ ," Leia said. "We're on your roster for expected arrivals today."

"Negative, _Morning Star_. This planet is under quarantine. You may not land."

The word thudded home. Caleb spoke, "This is Master Caleb Dume of the Jedi Order." A mild lie. He could argue about the title later if Ahsoka cared. "Why can't we land? What's going on?"

"No ships carrying humans or human-related cargo is permitted to land on Naboo soil. Any attempted violators will be destroyed upon entering the atmosphere."

He took in the frightened looks on both young faces, and stilled them with a quick hand. "Are you ill? Has there been an outbreak on your world?"

The voice hesitated. Whoever he was, he sounded very young himself. "No. We've been spared. Reports have come in from hundreds of other worlds. Naboo cannot allow anyone to land who might be infected. You have been warned."

Luke spoke into the communicator, voice much more firm than usual. "This is the pilot of the _Morning Star_. Please check your records for our crew and manifest."

"I don't..."

"Check it," Luke snapped.

A moment later, the voice said, "I'm sorry. I still cannot allow you to land, your grace."

Leia said, "We understand. We also understand this situation just got far more complicated than you were expecting. You should pass this problem up to your supervisor, and I suggest you also contact our mother."

"I will. There's another ship with yours that isn't on our expected arrivals."

Caleb said, "There are no humans aboard the other ship. There are two women, one Togruta and one Twi'lek. We came in from Ryloth."

The other voice swore very quietly, and Caleb caught a mumbled, "Her again?" Louder, he said, "Understood."

* * *

They were directed to an abandoned dock far outside Theed. Caleb chose to be grateful that both ships had been permitted to land rather than shot out of the sky. He had the terrible feeling he wouldn't find much to feel gratitude about in the coming days. To no one's surprise, they were greeted by armed Gungan guards as soon as they disembarked. He held his hands free and raised. Luke made loose fists which he kept at his sides. Leia folded her arms and glared at the lead guard.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded.

"With respect, you may carry the contagion. You will remain in quarantine here for two days." Odd. Caleb had heard people mock the Gungan accent, and he'd expected to hear the thick, folksy sound as the guard spoke. This Gungan spoke Basic better than Caleb did. He felt embarrassed for not even having considered that as a possibility.

"We most certainly will not," Leia said. Caleb placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

He nodded at the guard. "We understand. What will happen in two days?"

"You will be dead. If not, you may come to Theed."

"Our companions aren't human."

"Your companions," Hera said, as she and Ahsoka joined them, "have little reason to stay here, especially after that nonsense. I'll be happy to leave for Coruscant on my own."

The Gungan tilted his head. "Coruscant is dead."

Ahsoka frowned. Her face was lined with the recent pain. "What do you mean, 'dead?'"

"Everyone is gone." This was a new voice. At the far end of the hangar, a woman stood in the doorway. From the instant joy on the twins' faces, there was no mistaking her identity.

One of the guards turned to her as she walked towards them. "You must not come closer, Governor."

She didn't pause her steps. "I do not need your permission to hug my children." Her voice cut with the same steely threat Caleb had learned in a somewhat younger warble. Padmé Amidala had ruled the humans of this world as Queen when she'd been her daughter's age. Even now, Caleb fought the urge to drop to a knee. Instead, he offered her a courteous bow, which she accepted with a kind nod. Hera followed his lead, clearly uncertain of what had just transpired. Ahsoka stood still, watching her.

She turned back to the guards. "You may stand guard outside. These people are under my protection. If the quarantine must be held, I will stay in here with them. Please send in the food and supplies I requested."

"If you must."

"I must." She waited for him to leave before sweeping both her children into her arms with a relieved embrace. "Thank the stars you're safe. I've been terrified."

"Padmé," Ahsoka said.

Padmé looked up from the children, her face settling into a different expression. She gave each another squeeze, then stood. "I wish you'd contacted me."

"Our communicator aboard the ship was faulty. I couldn't send word long-distance. I'm sorry." Her own face was a mask.

Padmé wrapped her into another hug, just as deep and long and sad as the hug she'd given her children. After a moment, Ahsoka hugged her back, closing her eyes. She rarely smiled around Caleb, or anyone else he'd seen, but now the wave of affection he felt from her overwhelmed even the intense pain.

Ahsoka broke the hug, holding onto the other woman's arms. "Tell me."

"The cries for help started a few hours ago but it was already too late. The communications towers have been overloaded with messages, all saying the same thing. The contagion has hit hundreds of worlds at once. It's just as we feared."

"Humans this time?"

"Not just humans. Gungans haven't been targeted, not yet, but dozens of other species are dying. They've perfected the disease. We're too late."

Caleb felt the spillover emotions, the last cries of billions, crowding his throat, choking out the words as his own breath was cut off. The scale of destruction was beyond comprehension. He clutched onto Padmé's words the same way Ahsoka held her hands. "They who? What do you mean, targeted?" The guard had said Coruscant was dead. That made no sense.

Padmé looked at him with a quick irritation mirroring the expression her daughter had given him every day since they'd met. Then her face smoothed out, and he saw the weight of a thousand large and small griefs written there. "Ahsoka?"

"I've told you about Caleb." The sharp glance Padmé gave him hinted at what Ahsoka said. She added, "He's not a spy. Even if he was, it doesn't matter now." Her own grief lay heavy in her voice. "We need to contact the Council."

There was a series of beeps. Hera asked her droid if he was sure. "My long-range comm is working again. You can use it."

Ahsoka gave Padmé's hands a squeeze. "Luke, Leia, stay here. Tell your mother about your training." She nodded to Caleb to follow her aboard Hera's ship. Any other day, he was sure he'd be more impressed with this little freighter, based on the quick look he had as they made their way to the cockpit. Any other day, he wouldn't be calling home to find out if everyone he'd ever known was dead.

Hera flipped the switch and handed the communications system over to Ahsoka. As they waited, Caleb said, "I tried calling while we were in flight. I didn't get through."

Hera said, "If the comms are as overloaded as that woman said, it could be your signal never reached its destination." A scrap of hope floated in her voice.

Ahsoka said nothing, waiting as the signal went out. Minutes passed. Outside, just at the edge of the transparisteel bubble viewscreen, Caleb saw the kids talking with their mother though he couldn't hear what they said. Luke was already as tall as she was. The way she moved was very familiar. Tiny mannerisms he'd learned to see in her children showed their beginning in each touch of her hand to an arm, each fleeting expression she made as she listened to them.

There was a crackle. The empty transmitter pad flickered into a blue hologram of Master Yoda. The look on his face said enough.

"Master?" asked Ahsoka, then stopped, as though speaking any more words might kill her.

Yoda looked at her, with a quiet glance to Caleb. "Thirty-six there are."

"Dead?"

"Survivors. All that are left of the Jedi. Give you their names I will. Missions away from here, away from the dying worlds, each of you undertook. Do not land. Your Padawans must be kept safe. The last they are. The last you all are."

"We've taken refuge on Naboo."

Yoda shook his head sadly. "Then thirty-two there will be."

"We're not dead yet," said Caleb. "Master Yoda, is anyone left at the Temple?" He couldn't speak his own worst fear.

Yoda tilted his wizened head. Caleb remembered when he was not much taller than the Master himself, remembered how kindly he seemed. Great power, and great kindness. These were why he was so often given the watch over the youngest Jedi. The Temple had been full of younglings when they'd left just a few cycles ago. Speaking as he might to one of his smallest charges, Yoda said, "The Force is rich in companionship today. Young and old, friends and strangers. From the Temple. From the city." His eyes focused elsewhere, perhaps communing with spirits where the three aboard the ship couldn't see. "A grave is this planet now, and far more worlds than this. Come near you must not."

Caleb looked to Ahsoka, but her face was stony, and the depth of her grief cut through the numb haze growing in his own thoughts.

All were lost.

* * *

to be continued


	5. Chapter 5

The dock held few comforts. This was not a spaceport accustomed to hosting travelers, nor a bustling workplace for those whose livelihood depended on the rush and go of ships. There was a break room with an uneven table, enough for a few workers to take their midshift meal, and a small stasis chamber to keep those meals fresh for a day. Light hummed from bare displays run across the ceiling on efficient, stark lines. No cots or bunks to speak of. They would have to make do in the ships they brought as they waited out the quarantine. Not much of a homecoming for the twins.

Not much of anything.

The numb ache which had surrounded Caleb at Master Yoda's statement kept overtaking him. Words broke through here and there, penetrating the fog. Research. Pathogen. Ahsoka sat with Padmé and the children, hands folded in front of herself on the table, thumbs twitching. Hera had vanished. A memory popped up, his other senses having paid some attention while his mind had been floating: she'd given herself the task of bringing in the supplies Padmé had requested from the guards. Keeping busy, she'd said.

Ahsoka had said something about an investigation.

"You knew what they were going to do?"

"We've suspected. Many worlds have been infected with illnesses targeting different species, but the Senate is no longer powerful enough nor united enough to deal with the issue as a coherent threat. They called the previous events unrelated tragedies. They sent food and medicine, and they ignored or forgot by the next time it happened. We've been trying to uncover who is behind it and stop them. That's where I go when I leave Coruscant. I've been looking for the truth." Her hands twitched more. Padmé placed a comforting hand atop them.

Caleb folded his arms to keep the breath in his chest from flying away. "The Council never said anything to the rest of us."

"They sent their own agents. They didn't trust my research."

Padmé said, "Anakin and I were helping her. The Separatists didn't go away. They went underground. We've been hunting them for years." He could sense how tired she was. She was strikingly beautiful, yet the years on her face seemed far more numerous with the weight of all the griefs she carried. She still wore the mourning garb of a new widow, and now the galaxy she'd spent her life fighting to protect had died at her feet.

The numb dizziness flashed simple pictures in his mind. The war had injured the Jedi, body and soul. They had all fought, and bled, and then Skywalker's protégé came to the High Council insisting the war was not over. They wouldn't have wanted to believe her. They would have remembered every horrific skirmish, every corpse who was once a friend. Of course they'd sent their own agents in, and they'd investigated with caution, and they'd clung to every hope that she was wrong, preferring to believe Ahsoka was manufacturing a conflict for her own ends or had been misled by her demented master. Anything was better than returning to the war that had cost them all so much.

With a bitter clarity, he understood where his two best friends had gone instead of to a "meditative retreat" like Tai had claimed. Everyone had known about the danger but him, it seemed.

"This is stupid," said Leia. Her own voice was tight with anger. "This is utterly pointless! If you want power, you take over worlds, not kill everyone. You destroy one world to make a point. You don't destroy them all." She was wound up like a spring, ready to lash out at the first target. Her father had been the same, or so he'd heard. Killed in an accident brought about by his own... No. Caleb no longer believed that story.

Luke said, "Maybe they didn't want to take over. Maybe whoever did it just wanted revenge."

"We know who did it," said Padmé.

"We know the group. We don't know the individuals. Maybe there wasn't a logical reason, not by the end."

Like a half-remembered story, Caleb felt more than saw the images unfold in his mind: a grieving parent holding the still body of their child, a laboratory full of death carefully-cultivated and perfected on planet after planet over the past several years, an angry soul with nothing left to lose. Ships came and went to every world. Find a transit hub, or better yet find a few hubs, and set the contagions loose knowing the galaxy would soon mourn with your pain. Master Windu had often remarked how often the shatterpoints of history balanced inside the heart. The Separatists would have used their weapon as a terrible threat. It would have only taken one person to unleash the weapon.

"It doesn't matter," said Ahsoka. "The contagion has already been spread. It kills within days, often within hours. The earlier variants had a longer incubation period. Now they can wipe out a world in under a week." She looked at Padmé. "You understand that even if Naboo is not infected now, it can't remain that way. You are not safe here. Nowhere is safe."

"Then running will do us no good."

"We have to protect Luke and Leia," Ahsoka said. At their protests, she said angrily, "I couldn't protect anyone! I couldn't protect Anakin. I couldn't protect my home, or my friends. Please. Let me keep you safe. We can head to the far reaches of the Outer Rim, even into the unknown regions. Not every planet will have been attacked. Rex is out there with some of his men. We can join them." Her voice shook. In the back of his mind, Caleb could feel another cascade of pain building. He could only imagine how exquisite the agony was inside hers.

Padmé said, "I won't abandon my world. I can't imagine you abandoning the rest of the galaxy. Those who survive will need our help."

"What help? We lost. If we're right, and the Separatists were behind the attacks, they will sweep in and crush the survivors. We can't stand against them. There aren't enough Jedi left alive. If we're wrong, it doesn't matter. The surviving worlds will turn in on themselves. It's over."

"Then it is better to remain and die among friends. Ahsoka, I'm not leaving. If you believe you can find a place to keep the children safe, take them and go, but I don't agree and I wish you'd stay." She shifted her grip on their hands, entwining their fingers until the fight went out of Ahsoka's shoulders. She shifted to an embrace, which Ahsoka sank into like a long-weary traveler. "We can figure this out together," Padmé said to her.

Caleb stared between them, the strange, fractured nature of reality reforming into a pattern he hadn't understood until this moment. Ahsoka had spent time away from Coruscant. She'd spent much of it here. She wasn't just Luke's Master. She was his second mother. The woman she clearly loved was willing to let her raise their children alone, had sent them to her to raise on Coruscant until the Council made different plans.

He didn't want to picture how that mess got started, or how deep it went. You heard stories. He wondered if Master Kenobi knew. Then he remembered that Master Kenobi was dead. Everyone was dead.

Without a word, he left them there and went out to the main hangar to catch his breath.

Every time he tried to poke at the enormity of the loss, his mind shied away again, wrapping him in a thick blanket. He still felt the multitude of lives winking out in the Force, in waves and in embers. Untold trillions, perhaps more. He couldn't raise his lightsaber against a disease. He couldn't pilot a ship into an attack aimed at a virus. Reaching out into the Force for answers brought only the cries of the dying. The Council had known before the catastrophe yet their own great powers combined hadn't found the means to prevent it in time.

The Council.

The Council was dead, all save Master Yoda and Ahsoka. Yoda lived because his species was unknown to the attackers, if he could call that "living" in an echoing, empty Temple surrounded by the heaped bodies of thousands of Jedi, wise elders and small children both. Growing cold and stiff where they lay. Needing burial before they decayed.

Heart frozen, he imagined the tiny Grand Master moving through the corridors, securing the heavy, thick duracrete walls of the library to ensure the Lore survived. He pictured the fire, set as a mighty pyre for all the beloved dead, while Yoda watched and mourned alone before hobbling away into the silent ruins of the murdered city.

Attachment was a weakness Jedi could not permit themselves. During the war, loyalty to the cause was far more vital than loyalty to an individual friend or ally. One death was as tragic as the next, and the uncountable deaths today were each a tragedy that rolled up together into something so immense there were no words. "Apocalypse" was too small, too hollow, too mean for the magnitude. He felt all the deaths, standing here, but a few spiked through his chest like blaster bolts. Attachment led to loss, led to pain and fear, and all these emotions bore the faces of friends he'd known since the nursery, of created family who'd raised him, those he'd loved.

Depa was gone.

A sob wrenched his body. He sat on the floor, resting against a cold, dirty wall, and he let the grief consume him.

* * *

Some time later, he wasn't sure how long, he felt pressure against his arm. Caleb came back to himself from the depths where his sorrow had taken him. Hera sat next to him on the ground, her shoulder just touching his. He turned to see her watching him.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

She'd lived through the deaths of her people, and her family, and he'd never come up with the same words for her.

"Thanks." His breaths remained thick in his throat. "Pretty sure civilization just ended. How are you feeling?"

"My heart is heavy with a thousand sorrows. What is the weight of one more?" At his stare, she added, "Proverb. My parents were both fond of quoting it. After enough losses, you learn to shoulder them lightly. You haven't lost someone before?"

"Not since the end of the war. I was there when our clones went berserk and died. I lost friends during battles. It's been years, though. I guess I forgot."

"Forgetfulness is the mind's way of coping. If we kept all our horrors fresh, we'd go mad." He wondered if that was another piece of wisdom she'd learned from her parents. "Today is terrible. If we live, tomorrow will be awful, too. But if we keep living, we'll learn to carry these troubles and the new ones we haven't met yet."

"Great."

"You don't strike me as the lay down and die type. Meanwhile, your girlfriend is ready to build a cave and hide there for the rest of time."

"Ahsoka is a lot more powerful than I am. Right now, she's living through death after death as this thing spreads. She'll feel better soon, and she'll start giving me orders, and then _I'll_ feel better. And as we've both explained, she's not my girlfriend."

Hera kissed him.

He realized this in hindsight, more aware of the absence of the pressure of her lips against his rather than the immediacy. Caleb hadn't moved a muscle, too startled to react. Good thing she wasn't a battle droid. He'd be dead. Confused, but dead.

"Sorry," she said, leaning back and away, and not sounding sorry.

"Okay." That was a stupid thing to say. "What was that for?" Still stupid.

"Life as we know it is ending, I'm panicking, and you're here. My apologies. It won't happen again. There's food in the mess room. We should go eat, then make a plan." She stood up, and offered him a hand to help him to his feet.

Caleb followed her, considering the sum of the kisses he'd given and received in his life. Most, if not all, had been friendly touches of affection: on the cheek between friends, on his head from his master when she was struck with fondness. He'd had a deep interest in kissing, and more, with no good means of pursuing that interest without breaking rather more rules than he was ready to break.

"It could happen again," he nearly said, but now they'd returned to the mess room with the others. As he saw their faces, the wall of grief returned. He'd forgotten, for one happy minute. Admonished by his own conscience, Caleb tucked away the memory like a paper flower in his pocket, a bright image to bring out later when his heart was in need of lightening, not an insignificant gift in such a dark hour.

He had expected the food Padmé ordered to be on the fancy end, not unlike the meal at the failed dinner party yesterday. Instead, she'd brought high quality staples, enough to last them a month's siege. Ahsoka ate nothing, still reeling from distant blows against her psyche. The kids remained pale, their own powers extensive but not yet focused. Caleb suspected if they were, one or both would be comatose by now. Their mother had also brought a few of their favorite treats, fruits he'd never seen before. Leia poked at one, peeling the delicate skin off in a long, long coil before slurping it down in an undignified gulp. Caleb stuck to a rations bar, and shared a look with Hera. These crates might be their only supplies going forward, and conserving them now meant living longer.

"Are you heading back to Ryloth?" he asked her, as they cleared the refuse into the room's small waste incinerator.

She shook her head. "I've already contacted the Capital. Another outbreak began this morning in five separate provinces. The planet is back under quarantine."

"I'm sorry."

"We all keep saying that to one another. I think it's safe to accept the words are understood."

"Yeah." He made a decision and nodded to the twins. "Padawans, I have neglected your training for the past few days. We should practice."

"Now?" asked Leia, her face drawn into a scowl. This cheered him. If she was ready to argue with him, she wasn't ready to roll over and give up.

Luke said, "We don't have anything better to do right now." He stood and stretched. "We didn't bring any training lightsabers, and we haven't built our own yet."

Padmé said, "I've brought Anakin's with me. I thought we might need it."

Luke borrowed a lightsaber from Ahsoka's pair, and Leia used her father's. Caleb found an empty space in the hangar and took the kids through a double-length practice session, focusing on Form II and Form III. He had a bad feeling both would be very good at Form VII. Caleb knew he could easily embrace the joy of fighting for fighting's sake, but he was not sure of his own ability to step into the liminal sway of the Dark Side and step out as himself when the task was finished. The Masters had forbidden Anakin Skywalker to take up the practice, and it would be just as dangerous to allow his children the same chance.

Ready, step, turn.

Thousands of worlds had not fallen prey to the attack, and the survivors of the worlds which had would flee there as frightened refugees. What remained of interstellar trade and treaties would collapse. Many who had not been infected would die of malnutrition or from the petty wars erupting as neighbor cast blame on neighbor. The situation would grow more dire as resources strained. The first strong leader to promise prosperity and order would be welcomed as a god. Caleb didn't bother hoping that leader would be a good person. He'd read the histories. They never were.

Step, one, two, pause, three.

A Jedi might have the strength to step into that role, but even Master Yoda might not have the strength not to fall. He didn't dare offer Leia or Luke a taste of the power they could wield. He only dared give them control over themselves.

Ready, step, one, two, three.

The repetition of the movements brought peace and clarity.

"You don't use the Force," he told them as they moved. "You let the Force use you. When you are at your best, you will be able to open yourself to the Force and act as its instrument. You will have no self, no desire, no need. You will be the Force."

Step, four, five six, pause.

He remembered the words from his own training, remembered repeating them without understanding. All this time later, and he wasn't sure he'd ever achieved that moment of pure unity with the Force. A teacher who didn't fully comprehend the instruction was not the best educator, but there were few other options. This pair could be the last Padawans left alive, and he would damn well ensure they got their lessons

He sparred with each in turn, mindful of the live blades they used. Luke favored Ahsoka's method, which in turn favored her old Master's preferred style. The boy fought with instinct, predicting Caleb's moves as he made them, using the eddies of the Force to guide his blade. Leia had been far better matched to Caleb, he could see now. She exhibited perfect form with each move, keeping her lightsaber solid to the precise motions she'd been taught. Luke was a whirlwind, and Leia a stone. He tried to picture a Padawan who embodied both, who followed the form at need but could improvise at will. Ultimately, that must be their goal with these two, assuming they didn't all die in the next few days.

Sweaty and tired, but feeling better for the activity, Caleb ended the lesson. The twins scampered over to their mom, who'd watched them with a mix of emotions the whole time.

"You're doing very well," she said, a strained warmth in her voice. "Your father would be so proud of you."

He didn't know this woman. He had seen her face in holos, and he knew her children, but they hadn't met before today. A Jedi should not be rude or indelicate, but it had been a very long day. "Your husband didn't die in a pod-racing accident, did he?"

She stared at hom a moment. "No. He was on a mission, looking for answers to the rumors we'd heard about the contagion. His ship was shot down. We suspected the Separatists, but there was no evidence."

Leia touched her mother's shoulder. He could sense the Force-soothing she was sending between them. "We came to Coruscant to find out if the Jedi were behind his death, or knew who was."

"Obi-Wan was sure they weren't," Luke said. "We had to be sure ourselves." They both watched Caleb, Leia firmly and Luke a little embarrassed. They'd lied, but it seemed everyone had been lying.

With some effort, he asked, "And what was your conclusion?"

Leia said, "Many of them didn't like Father very much after what he did. Master Windu was worried about what he was going to be, and was just as worried about what Luke and I would grow up to be. But he cared for Father a great deal, and he and everyone else I spoke to mourned Father's loss." Her voice was tight.

"Obi-Wan and I did tell you," said her mother. "It doesn't matter now."

"It does matter," said Leia.

Luke said, "It means they weren't murderers." The word sounded strange coming from him. Luke's cheeriness couldn't have all been an act, could it? Caleb didn't believe so. Leia may have come to discover the truth, but Luke would have hoped he already knew the answer.

"No, they were all murdered," Caleb said. "Your mom is right. It doesn't matter any longer. Everyone is gone." His own words came out more harsh than he'd intended. The calm he'd bought during their practice had evaporated.

"Not all," Leia said. "There are four of us here. Master Yoda said there were others. We should contact them."

"We will. I'm not sure where we can meet. There's no safe place, not even here. Any planet could be infected next." He could feel the numbness creeping back, the claw-tipped fingers of despair. He'd been taught all his life to exist apart, accept the will of the Force, not give in to desire or fear or anger, but he had been given no means of defense against this hollow emptiness where everyone he'd ever known was missing.

"Then we'll stop them from infecting the next planet." She sounded so confident.

"How? We don't know how they infected the others." He rubbed his face with his hand. Yoda was right. They couldn't stay here. Naboo would be targeted soon. The closest thing to safety was space, and the next best thing was some Outer Rim ball of dirt no one had heard of. They could hunker down with the other survivors and hide, just as Ahsoka had said. The Jedi had spent the last fourteen years hiding away on Coruscant. That hadn't saved them.

Padmé said, "We have some idea. It doesn't matter now. The time to stop this was before they had the chance to start, and we never found the start."

As she spoke, shadows filled the hangar, humans and a few others going about their business. Just a regular day. The vision faded. The children blinked their eyes. Luke said, "Another one?"

"Time squeeze," Caleb said. "Visitors from a different timeline."

"Why does that keep happening?" Leia asked. A stone dropped inside Caleb's mind. He'd thought they hadn't noticed. They'd hid their motivations from him and the extent of their powers. What else didn't he know about these two?

"Something changed that shouldn't have." They turned to see Ahsoka. Her face still looked pinched and drawn, but strength had returned to her voice. "Something that led us here." She looked at Caleb. "Master Windu could see the start of things, and the potential outcomes. I wish I could ask him now where this began."

A thought broke, like a warm bubble on the surface of a bath. "What if he did?" Caleb approached the suspicion carefully, already aching and not ready to add to his own griefs yet. He asked Padmé, "Why did your husband kill the Chancellor?"

"What?"

Ahsoka said, "Palpatine was a Sith Lord. Anakin knew that."

"Yeah," said Caleb. "I know. We all know. But Master Windu said his foresight told him Anakin Skywalker was going to betray him and side with Palpatine. He didn't. Why?"

"You think people are dying because my husband killed a monster instead of a Jedi he'd known most of his life?" Padmé's question held that same annoyed tone Caleb knew very well from Leia. He'd spent some time learning how to deal with that.

"Not yet I don't. Something changed." He remembered his conversation with Mace. "There was a stranger there, someone Master Windu didn't know. Someone who wasn't supposed to be there. Did he say something to your husband to convince him?"

"He wouldn't tell me who it was." Her voice changed, regaining a regretful sorrow as she remembered the man she'd loved. "I know what you're asking. Someone he trusted completely told him Palpatine had been manipulating him against the other Jedi for years, had sent him false visions of my death to lure Anakin to the Dark Side in hopes of saving me. Anakin believed them, and struck down the Chancellor. He ended the Sith and the war. Don't tell me that was wrong!"

Caleb was terrible at looking down alternate paths. Without Master Windu's gift, he could only make guesses at how time would have unfolded with the Chancellor alive. Could the simple rescue of one awful man make such an impact as they felt today? He poked at the thought from the other side, the painful side. Had Anakin Skywalker spared Palpatine, he would have murdered Mace. Caleb couldn't imagine how much agony that would have caused Depa. He could only guess how much agony it would have caused everyone else to have allowed the beast to live.

The courtyard on Ryloth had been full of ghosts. In some other timeline, those people hadn't died. Someone had changed their fate.

There was a cough. Hera stood beside her ship. "I've been listening to the comms chatter. There was just a report of fatalities in Theed. If we don't get off this planet in the next couple of minutes, Ahsoka and I will be the only ones alive tomorrow." A light note of terror filled her voice.

Padmé froze, then stood. "Luke, warm up the ship. The rest of you, grab a supply crate each and load it. Anything not on the ship in two minutes, we leave here."

"Load it on mine," said Hera. "I've got plenty of cargo space." She was already opening her docking ramp and grabbed the nearest antigrav lifter. Caleb went to get another, then realized he was being foolish. He reached out with the Force and lifted them all, floating them into the cargo hold on her ship. "Or you could do that. Let's go." She hurried aboard. Her astromech was already readying the engines.

Padmé went to the far door of the hangar. Before they could even think to stop her, she'd opened the door. Outside, guards waited, the Gungans assigned to keep them in their quarantine. Caleb couldn't hear what she said to them. He turned to Leia. "Get on the ship. We have to leave."

Padmé returned with two of their guards. "They're joining us. We have no way to reach anyone else if we hope to survive." Her voice was dull. She was abandoning her home after all. She and the guards joined the twins on the skiff. Caleb followed Ahsoka onto Hera's ship, finding a seat just as they lifted off, taking air beside the other ship. The wide bubble gave a gorgeous view of the green world dropping away below them, where he could already feel the quick, sharp pangs of the dying. If the illness was airborn, they were dead even as they escaped the atmosphere. Other ships rose up from the city, desperate to flee, and he knew most would never land again, drifting eternally with their own cargo of lost lives.

They made orbit, floating beside the golden yacht. Hera sat back in her seat. "What's our heading?"

Ahsoka stared back at her. "I don't know."

"You said you had friends out here," Caleb said. "Can we contact them? Find out if they're still alive? Maybe we can meet up with the rest of the surviving Jedi and do something."

"What is there left to do?"

"Not die," Hera said. "Give me a destination."

* * *

to be continued


	6. Chapter 6

Caleb woke from a fitful sleep in a dark room he didn't recognize. He sat up, almost smacking his head on the bunk above him. Right. He was on a ship, alone in a comfortable bed that was not his own.

His memory slotted into place. After they'd set the course, he'd joined his two traveling companions in the crew lounge area to discuss plans that went nowhere fast. Exhaustion had finally caught up with him, and he'd drifted off with Hera slumped against him, equally as tired. Ahsoka had nudged them both awake and sent them off for a few hours of sleep. He had a fuzzy memory of stumbling through the ship to the crew quarters, and being shown a cabin across the corridor from the captain's room. Had she kissed him again? No, he was positive she hadn't. He'd have remembered that clearly, as he cherished the memory of the first kiss.

He liked these moments. He held onto them, savoring the sleepy itchiness of his eyes, and the mundane delight of resting his head on a soft surface while thinking about an attractive woman. Normal, safe, pleasant moments. His other memories kept surfacing beneath these, finned terrors under the falsely calm waters. Depa was the first thought and the worst, his closest and most beloved friend, and she wasn't the only one. Sammo, Tai, Katooni, Zatt, and everyone else Caleb had ever known was gone.

His friends were dead and he was headed from disaster into the unknown. Every small mercy within this storm of hurt was a gift.

The door opened to his touch. The door across the hall remained shut. His internal time sense told him it had only been a few hours. Hera would still be sleeping. He left her to rest, and found his way back to the cockpit.

Ahsoka stared out the viewport from the pilot's chair.

"Good morning," he said, and took the other seat beside her.

"Did you sleep well?" She sounded far older than she should, and the light tone of her words was undercut by the roughness in her throat. Caleb looked at her again. She had been weeping. He went to reach out a comforting hand and was stopped by her expression. Just as he had taken comfort in his waking memories, Ahsoka clung to normal conversation to prevent herself from drowning in despair.

"I did, thank you." He dredged around for another normal topic. "Did you contact your friend?"

"Yes. He thinks the world he's on is far enough away from the Core and the influential worlds that we might be safe for a while."

"Good." Caleb couldn't even remember the name of where they were going. Some forgotten dustball of a planet, some lonely rock for the last few surviving clones to fetch up on. Their last hope.

"There are twenty-four left now." Her words came out like thick, dull bricks.

Ten more Jedi dead since yesterday. After the trillions who died, such a small number shouldn't seem like a difficult loss, but he felt it hard. Come to that, there had been a chance he would have gone to bed and never woken up, already infected before they left Naboo. "How's the other ship?"

"They're fine. Padmé said she wished you were aboard to train the twins while we're traveling. I think she likes you."

There was no good time to ask this. "Are the two of you..." He didn't know how to end his sentence.

Ahsoka stared at him, her familiar frown forming. Then she sighed, the weight of her own thousand sorrows pushing her into the seat. "It's complicated, and I don't owe you an explanation."

"You don't," he agreed. "It might have been easier for me to train Leia if I'd known she was your daughter."

"I'm her godsmother, not her mother," Ahsoka said too quickly. He wondered if she knew how her words sounded, like an oft-repeated excuse she'd practiced long after she'd stopped believing the story herself. "When Obi-Wan came to visit, he was like a second grandfather." A smile touched her lips and faded. Master Kenobi was gone, too. He'd told Caleb that parents would do anything for their children. He'd given his children their freedom.

"You're going to have to tell me what you need from me. If you and Padmé want to take the twins somewhere safe, and hide away while the galaxy burns, I understand. I can stick around and help, or you can cut me loose and I'll..." He didn't know how to finish that sentence, either. Two days ago, he'd known the exact trajectory of his life. Now he didn't even know the name of the planet where he was headed. "I'll figure out something to do."

"This is a nice ship," she said, changing the subject abruptly.

"I haven't had much of a chance to see it."

"Hera will need a crew, I'm sure."

The disappointment surprised him. "You are cutting me loose."

"No. If you choose to stay with us, we'll be glad for your help. The twins are fond of you." At his disbelief, she added, "Leia's been telling her mother how much she's learned from you. Although you and I both know you didn't want to take her as your apprentice, you've been nothing but supportive of her education. I believe both children would thrive with the two of us continuing to train them together." The admission was difficult for her. Two days ago, she'd denounced him as a Council toady. Today, he was one of the few other Jedi left alive, but worse for her, Caleb suspected Ahsoka was starting to like him despite herself.

He didn't let his satisfaction show. "Thanks. I'm pretty fond of the kids, too."

"I can see that. But everything has changed. The Jedi as an order are gone, and you have your own decisions to make. Hera seems very nice."

His tired brain caught up with her words. "I just got her to stop teasing me about you being my girlfriend. Don't you start. You know better. Jedi aren't supposed to dwell on that sort of thing." He mentally dialed back their conversation by a few minutes. "Your Master got married. Look how that turned out. Besides, I've only known her for two days, and we've spent half of that fleeing for our lives. That's not a basis for any kind of attachment."

An amused smirk lit up half her face. "I didn't suggest you had an attachment. I said she was nice. You filled in the rest."

* * *

The dustball featured a spaceport, which was smaller than the one they'd used on Ryloth. It also featured a small cadre of armed guards who all wore the faces of the first men Caleb had seen die. He followed Ahsoka down the ramp of the ship and watched her hug a grizzled old veteran who looked twice Caleb's age. Doing the math, that meant these clones were all about their age in years. When the J-type skiff landed a few minutes later, Padmé gave the lead clone another hug.

"This is Rex," was the only explanation he got.

"I don't have to hug him, right?" He did not, nor did their new Gungan friends.

Their supplies were quickly off-loaded and taken elsewhere. Caleb caught Hera's worried expression, and couldn't offer any advice. Either these men were their allies, which meant the food was safe, or they were all about to be betrayed and killed, which meant they wouldn't be hungry later.

Another five ships arrived as the day went on, each bearing shell-shocked Jedi. Caleb knew none of them except by vague reputation. Four were faces he'd seen around the Temple, much younger than he was, all sent on meditative retreat. Three had been the caretakers of an outpost Temple on some Outer Rim world he didn't know. Most had been traveling between worlds when the disaster struck. Ahsoka seemed to know each one by name, greeting them formally. She was the lone surviving member of the Jedi Council, aside from Master Yoda, and Master Yoda had stopped replying to their frantic calls. Unpopular, untrusted, she was their leader now.

The last ship to arrived carried two Jedi he didn't recognize and an Ithorian he did. "Byph," he said, taking his friend's hands with more emotion than he'd expected.

"It was so sudden." Byph's huge eyes still welled with tears.

"I know."

There were no more ships. "They were healers," Ahsoka said. "And the galaxy fell ill." They both glanced around the ragged gathering which had collected in the rough building next to the spaceport which her friend had set aside for them. Twenty survivors, two of them teenagers. Caleb felt ill with heartsickness.

"My friends," she said, "thank you for coming. I wish I had hope to offer you. I have none. I can tell you this plague was created, but I cannot tell you if there is a cure, or if it will spread further. I only know we are stronger when we are together." The short speech took the last of her energy. She found a chair and used it as the others pressed her with questions she had no answers for. Padmé fielded the few she could, sitting next to Ahsoka with her own strength flagging yet lending what she had to her friend.

Some of the other Jedi looked close to their own breaking point. An older Tholothian woman kept repeating, "We need a plan. We need a plan." Shock hadn't yet finished its own deadly work. While Jedi might have far more training on the means to quell emotional blows, sensing those blows from every corner of the galaxy could overtake even the strongest of them. Maybe it already had. Maybe that was why Master Yoda wouldn't be joining them.

"I need some air," said Byph. "Caleb, will you join me for a walk?"

There was nothing he could do here. With a nod of his head to the kids to stick with Ahsoka and their mom, Caleb followed his friend into the still-hot night. They walked in silence until the building was one brightly-lit bulk, large insects darting past the windows, dimming the lights with blinks of darkness as they passed.

"What is your plan?"

Caleb stared at him. "Why ask me?"

"There's no one else to ask. Master Tano is in distress, and while I trust her, many here will not."

"She's the head of the Council now. If we have a Council now."

"We shouldn't have one." He sounded serious enough to give Caleb pause.

"You know something."

"I know people. There are eighteen of us, and a few children. We are all the Council now. Whatever we decide, we'll decide as a group, and I can tell you, this group cannot be allowed to make decisions at this time. The first thing I felt when I stepped into that room was fear."

His words defined a shape for the nebulous mess Caleb had noticed growing in drips as the ships had arrived. Out here, he could sense terror like a gray cloud enveloping the building. "Yeah."

"The Masters were chosen for their wisdom and for the strengths each one possessed which added a unique perspective to the Council. We have a ragged group of tired, aching, frightened people who just lost everything. Jedi should be impartial and impassive. You are the only one not panicking. Give them something to do. Give them a plan, even a false one, to focus themselves again. Otherwise, the fear will consume them."

"I don't have a plan."

"Does Ahsoka?"

He recalled the night before, when they'd gone over their options. They'd run out of ideas before they'd finished the stale instant caf in their cups. "No."

"Then it doesn't matter. The loudest voice who can get the most friends behind him or her will wind up in charge." Byph's large eyes held a different sorrow than the end of the galaxy. He'd always believed in the Jedi Order, believed like those odd whisperers of the Whills believed. "If you'll excuse me." He changed direction, heading away from the lights of the building towards the space port.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Back to my ship. There are countless souls in need. I'd prefer to die helping them than finding out how bad things will be here."

"We'll figure something out." Caleb hurried his steps to follow, grabbing his arm. In a moment, he felt the power radiating off his friend, shoving him firmly away.

"That's what I'm afraid of, and I don't intend to be afraid. Goodbye, Caleb."

He watched Byph go. He could compel him to stay, maybe, and that would be the beginning of the same terror looming in their near future. A Jedi was one with the Force. A Jedi allowed the Force to consume, to move, to guide. A Jedi was a conduit. But a Jedi could bend the Force at will, could use its power, could be taken by desire and fear, twisted into something else. Dooku had been a Jedi. Anakin Skywalker had been a Jedi and had almost fallen into darkness.

"Byph!"

There was no response.

"Byph! I have a plan."

His friend paused, tilting his huge head to listen. "Are you sure?"

"No. It's a terrible idea. But it's a plan." Without waiting, knowing if he thought about this too much, he'd find all the flaws, Caleb returned to the brightly-lit building, brushing past the flying insects that buzzed and thronged at the windows.

Voices were raised inside. He felt the fear thick as wings. Luke and Leia kept to the back of the room, standing near the door and watching the others with worried faces. He guessed they would have been given instructions to run if things got ugly, and he also guessed they would do no such thing. Leia still carried their father's lightsaber at her belt. She wasn't a match yet for any of the adults in the room, should things deteriorate that far. He knew she'd try anyway.

Caleb gestured to them, bringing both closer to the door. "I have a question for each of you," he asked quietly. "Consider your answer, but don't consider long. What do you think we should do next?"

Luke said, "We should help the survivors. There will be people left on the planets ravaged by the plague. There are tons of worlds that haven't been hit but who need help. We're Jedi. We have to help them."

Caleb nodded. It was a good answer. Many Jedi were kind, and thought best with their hearts. Bringing aid and succor to the suffering would be their first priority. He asked Leia, "And you?" Behind them, the raised voices grew louder. Caleb fought to ignore them, fought to focus on his Padawan. Ahsoka was the head of the Council. She could hold the others in check a little while longer.

Leia didn't reply at first, although by the look in her eyes, he could tell she already knew her answer and was coming up with the best way to explain herself. "We have to fix this. Trillions are dead, more will follow. We're Jedi. We have to make this right." Her voice rang with conviction.

He nodded again. "You're both correct. Excellent work." He couldn't ignore the argument any longer. Someone would have to step in, but the first person to ignite a lightsaber would spark the powder keg. They were all spoiling for a fight against some enemy they could defeat. Under normal conditions, no Jedi would turn on another, but nothing was normal now. Byph was right. Everyone here was terrified, and everyone in the room had been trained since childhood as a living weapon.

Almost everyone.

A blaster shot rang out, startling them all into silence. The bolt flew harmlessly towards the tall ceiling, striking a hole next to a rafter. Hands went to belts, ready to draw lightsabers, but not, and this was critical, actually doing so.

Hera put her blaster down. "Everyone take a breather."

One of the Jedi from the outpost Temple pulled himself up to his full two meters and glared at her. "Do you think you have any business dictating our affairs?"

Padmé said, "That's actually a pertinent legal question. I'm glad you asked." She stood, and Ahsoka's face took on the bright sheen of someone who has spent far too many hours listening to someone they love go on about politics. "With the sudden power vacuum we're presented with, it is entirely possible Senator Syndulla is the new Chancellor. Although the Jedi do not formally answer to the Senate, I believe that as Republic citizens, you are subject to their laws and decrees."

Hera's smirk moved from pleased to a frozen, horrified smile. "I don't believe that's entirely the case."

"I'm sure it is," Padmé said, gesturing to the assembled group. "We are all subject to the will of the Senate."

"Well, of course we are," Hera said, clearly rattled.

"And you are the lone surviving Senator, which means you get the deciding vote on where we go next."

The Temple Jedi scowled, taking in both women with his dark expression, but he bowed his head. "My apologies, Chancellor," he said, allowing the faintest hint of his disdain to brush across the honorific. "Did you have an opinion on our next course of action?"

Her jaw set. Caleb had a bad feeling this was about to become an intergalactic incident. He cleared his throat, and in his best impression of Master Windu's kyber-hard self-assurance, he said, "I know what we need to do."

The tone caught their attention, even if that was rapidly offset by their quick visual estimation. The three women he'd arrived with thought he was a fool. The rest were coming to much the same conclusion. Byph stood in the back with the twins, watching.

Caleb said, "I know where this started, where it all started. Anakin Skywalker murdered Chancellor Palpatine. He wasn't supposed to. Someone interfered with the timeline, and they talked him out of it. That's why we have the time squeezes. That's what sent the surviving Separatists underground to complete the virus. Everything that has occurred since that day happened because of that one choice. We are on the wrong timeline."

A young woman Caleb had seen around the Temple on Coruscant asked, "That's all well and good, but what does it matter? Everyone is dead."

"They don't have to be." This was overstepping everything he'd ever been taught. This wasn't kissing a beautiful woman levels of breaking the Jedi Code, this was blowing up an inhabited planet levels. In the pit of his conscience, his mental image of Depa, who always lived inside him and guided him, glared daggers at Caleb. "The Council knew how to manipulate the Force to travel through time. Didn't they, Master Tano?"

He let the eyes of the others lock on Ahsoka again, who sat as stiff and shocked as Hera looked a minute ago. Caleb had just set her up, and he felt awful. They'd been on their way to becoming friends. She might never forgive him for telling a secret he should not have known.

Ahsoka watched him, the wheels in her mind turning. She would wonder if Depa had told him on purpose, or merely let it slip. She would wonder if her best course of action was to denounce him swiftly and cling to the secret lest this pack of scared Force-wielders create more chaos. She would wonder if he was right.

She'd spent weeks not trusting him. This last act was not going to endear him further to her. He met her eyes and didn't flinch, waiting for her answer.

"Yes. The Council knew."

Words exploded around them, demanding details, answers, why this had never been spoken of before. Ahsoka said nothing, only kept her disappointed gaze squarely on Caleb, who refused to blink. He knew in his bones this was the correct path. They must go back. They must make this right. The Jedi were peacekeepers. They must do what they could to keep the peace.

Byph's gentle voice managed to carry over all the rest by the simple expedient of his turning up the volume on his translator. "Do you know how, Master Tano?"

The other voices stilled. Ahsoka said, "No. But I know how to activate the holocron."

* * *

tbc

AN: I almost stopped posting this. Then I realized continuing the story would annoy people I don't like and would entertain people I do like.


	7. Chapter 7

What surely had to be the most dangerous holocron in the galaxy had six copies, the first held at the Temple on Coruscant, and five others at locations known only to the Council. Depa had taken Caleb to an abandoned Jedi Temple when he was sixteen years old, one of their rare visits off-world after the war ended. She had wanted him to learn about their history before such places collapsed into dust and ruin forever.

Depa had been a great believer in learning from history.

Moments like this still caught him, striking him as hard as a fist when he remembered that she was dead. Like pins pricking the safe bubble of his thoughts, the fragile calm Caleb kept rebuilding fell apart in shudders he hid from the others.

"This is a bad idea," was the only thing Ahsoka had said to him since the meeting had broken up.

"Then come up with a better one." But she'd already walked away from him, angry and frightened, exactly the emotions she couldn't dare feel now.

If she'd been speaking to him, Caleb would have volunteered the information that Depa had only told him after he'd had the vision. The pair of them had knelt on the dusty floor of the old Temple, diving into the deepest waters of guided meditation. Depa had wanted her young student to reach into the past, reach into himself, and touch the rich, silty seabed of the Force in a search for wisdom. Instead, a current of thought had dragged him away from her, and he'd followed the freshet into knowledge of a strange power pulsing near them. He'd seen, and when they'd awakened from the trance, he had questioned, and Depa had answered him truthfully.

"It's wisdom from long ago," she had told him.

"But we could use it!"

He had been so young, and she had been understanding as she explained that true wisdom was knowing when not to use such great power. Caleb wished she was here now. He could use her wisdom, and he missed her.

Ahsoka's clone friend found lodgings for Padmé and her children, and offered the same for the other refugees. Most had accepted, while the rest had chosen to remain with their ships. Caleb wasn't tired. He owned nothing but his clothes and his lightsaber, and he decided he could always find a nice wall to lean against if he wanted a nap later.

He went looking for his apprentice and her family.

Padmé answered at the first knock. "Did you need something?" He could read the exhaustion all over her as she opened the door, and immediately regretted the decision.

"Sorry. I'll come back in the morning."

"It's fine. Were you here to see Leia?" Past her, he could see the shadows of their temporary home. Cots had been set up for them in a small space that shared a refresher with five other rooms. A soldier's accommodations. The twins had already gone to sleep in the two far cots. He wasn't sure if Ahsoka was asleep in another, and he wasn't about to ask.

"Yes. It can wait. Good night."

Padmé stepped outside and closed the door behind her. "You're leaving her here with me. You're leaving both of them here." It was neither a question nor a command, merely a statement of fact. He'd come to say goodbye and she knew it.

"You have friends here. She'll be safe here. If the mission fails, Leia and her brother will be the last two Padawans left alive. I won't risk her safety now."

"Nowhere is safe."

"Then she'll be with the people she loves at the end." It was the best anyone had left to ask.

"Leia likes you, you know. She told me how much she's enjoyed learning from you."

The words warmed him. "She's a great kid. It's been an honor to teach her. Both of them. You should be proud."

"I always have been."

* * *

The Tholothian Jedi died in the night, victim to the terrors she couldn't block out of her mind. Two others lingered in inanimate fugues, too caught by inward griefs to return to the outer reality. When he'd gone to wake Ahsoka after a restless night of failing to meditate alone, he'd half expected to find her withdrawn inside her own mind. She was pale today, wearing the tight expression of one who carried more pain than her arms could hold much longer, but she lived.

A handful of clones joined them for the journey to the world Caleb remembered from his vision, the closest of the sites. Even as they made plans to travel, more of the Core Worlds and Mid Rim fell, echoing inside them all. Outer Rim planets weren't as devastated, but they must make haste before their goal became a wasteland.

Hera insisted they take her ship. It was the fastest, she pointed out. Caleb suspected she wanted to get as far away as she could from anyone trying to make her Chancellor.

"We should go with you," Leia said, irked at being left behind with her mother.

Ahsoka said, "No."

Luke said, "You're our Masters. We're supposed to stay with you and learn everything we can from you."

Ahsoka's face crumpled into something like sorrow before opening into a smile. Rather than replying, she hugged Luke hard, then hugged his sister. "We'll come back as soon as we can."

Luke accepted this, but Leia frowned. "If you succeed, that means we'll never see you again. None of this will have ever happened."

Her mother took her hand. Leia made the awkward expression of someone a little too old to be holding her mom's hand, then settled into the touch. "It will have happened. It will just have happened differently. Have faith, my darling one."

"I'd rather be doing something helpful."

"You will be," Caleb said. "You'll be here learning. Our friend," he nodded at Byph, "can keep working with you on your training while we're gone." He dropped his voice, and let her see him glance back at the other Jedi. "It's going to be up to you not to let them do something stupid. I'm counting on you for this."

Leia tilted her head, assessing him just as she'd done the day they met. Then she nodded once.

* * *

Their destination was a nothing little world given primarily to farming and mining. Depa had told him it was once an outpost for the Jedi during a long past war. The Council at the time had been the ones who figured out the secret, and had locked that knowledge away for the danger it represented.

Caleb remembered asking why the Council hadn't destroyed the holocrons, keeping everyone safe. Depa had said, "Because the time might come when they needed it. I have my doubts about the choice. The temptation is great to return to an earlier point and change the path of history. The risk one takes is picking a worse path the second time through."

He read the same warning on Ahsoka's face now as they sat in the cockpit, watching the blue radiance of hyperspace cascade around them. The Council had known this secret, and shared the knowledge only amongst themselves. There were good reasons why they'd never used it.

Unless someone had. Unless someone already went back and changed things, whispering into Skywalker's ear. The more Caleb considered this, the more he was positive the changes cracked out from that one fragile point. Master Windu would know. He'd be able to pinpoint the moment and the action, and he'd fix the break. Unless he couldn't. Unless things broke in a fashion defying even his abilities to judge, leaving him as adrift as anyone else.

Too many variables. Like a morsel stuck in a tooth, Caleb worried at the one piece he knew shouldn't be there.

"Anakin never told you about the stranger?"

For a moment, he was sure she wouldn't speak to him. "Only what he told Padmé." Which was nothing.

"Ma'am," said one of the clones to Ahsoka. "We've encountered an issue." They turned. Caleb shouldn't have been surprised to see another clone behind him, hand clamped firmly on Leia's shoulder as she glared.

Ahsoka visibly paled. "Captain, we must go back."

"Negative." Hera turned back to her viewscreen.

"I'd hate to have to make that an order."

"Good thing you're not going to try that, then, because we'd have a problem."

"We must take Leia back. We can't bring her on the mission with us. It's too dangerous!"

Caleb recalled what Master Kenobi had said about about Ahsoka's Padawan years. He didn't disagree, though. He walked to the back of the cockpit. "I told you to stay put."

"I can be more help here with you, Master." Her obedient, apologetic tone didn't fool him for a moment. He nodded to the clone and took her arm, leading her out of the cockpit and into the back while Ahsoka and Hera argued.

"What are you really up to, kid?"

"Up?"

"Leia."

"Luke and I talked it over. We realized the fate of the galaxy is in your hands." She paused, looking for a diplomatic explanation. "We thought a little extra help would be a good idea." She nodded her way through the words and ended then with a hopeful smile.

He let the gentle barb slide. Berating her would only give him another headache. "This is an incredibly dangerous mission. You could be killed."

"I'll die if the mission fails. Anything I can do to aid its success will be an overall gain."

The voices from the other part of the ship had quieted. "Swear to me you will follow instructions for the rest of this mission, or I'm going to," he hesitated only a second as he went through his options, "ask the Captain to lock you in the brig."

"There's no brig."

"Then I'll ask your godsmother to send you to your room. Is that better?"

"I'll listen."

He considered forcing her to make a proper swear on something she cared about, but that opened too many wounds today. "Fine." He turned and allowed her to follow him back to the cockpit.

Ahsoka's face had returned to some kind of calm. She looked a little perkier for having had the argument. "We will continue the mission. As has been pointed out to me, we don't have time to waste given the rapid spread of the contagion. The world we're approaching has not yet been infected, but this may not be the case by the time we arrive. Our best chance of success is to hurry." She turned to Leia. "Padawan, your disobedience has been noted. As a punishment, your task is to contact your mother and explain what you've done. I am sure she is out of her mind with worry."

Caleb said, "And if we do get out of this mess alive, you're grounded."

Meekly, Leia said, "Yes, Masters."

* * *

The real trouble started as soon as they dropped out of hyperspace. Lothal didn't boast many planetary defenses worth mentioning, which didn't stop the threats.

 _"Do not attempt to land,"_ the warning repeated.

"We are on a diplomatic mission," Hera said, running out of patience. "As I told you, we have three Jedi aboard who require permission to land."

 _"Do not attempt to land."_

"We haven't been exposed to the virus," she said. "You are in no danger." When the warning repeated, she closed the comm and turned to her passengers. "Did you have another idea?"

Ahsoka stared at the lonely world hanging like a gem below them, untouched by the plague ravaging the rest of the galaxy. They were frightened, wishing to keep their families safe. Her expression said she wanted the same, wanted to fly back to the world they'd just left and hold the people she loved as long as she could.

"We can't reach any of the other locations," she said. "Two planets have been lost to history. Even the Jedi Council didn't know where they were located. The rest have fallen victim to the sickness. We must land here, or we must abandon this plan."

"We're landing," Hera said, before anyone could open debate or suggest they leave. She flipped a switch and glanced at her astromech. "If you weren't kidding about that cloak you said you installed, now would be a good time to deploy it." The droid made a noise that Caleb was pretty sure mean it had been joking. "Then hold on."

She nosed the ship into a steep dive, making a direct line for their target. A minute later, insect-tiny ships launched from the surface and sped towards them. Hera banked her ship, skimming past their lasers as the planetary ships opened fire. More ships met them. One of the clones went to a weapons console, but Ahsoka ordered him not to fire. "They aren't our enemies."

Hera said, "That won't matter much if they kill us anyway!" She goaded a little more speed out of her ship, dodging blasts.

A torpedo rocked one side of the ship, sending them rolling as alerts went off. The astromech rolled to a port, starting repairs even while they zoomed towards the ground. Gravity from the planet overtook the ship's artificial gravity in a stomach-dropping twist. Hera spun the ship to avoid another laser blast. These guys really did think their ship had come to infect the whole planet, and weren't taking any chances.

Hera's freighter flipped four times, burning momentum in bumps. If they hit the ground at this speed, there wouldn't be anything left except debris.

Ahsoka reached out and took his hand. Caleb startled for a moment, then understood and touched Leia's shoulder. Together, they reached for the ship with the Force, easing their descent into a slower fall. Hera touched down moments later.

For a second, they all remained still, surprised to be alive. Lasers blasted outside, striking the ground right beside them. Hera slammed her fist onto a switch. Air hissed as all the hatches fell open at once. The droid was already out the cockpit and headed to the open airlock. The rest of them hurried after, tumbling out as the blasts got closer.

The blasts stopped, and for one wild moment as they ran, Caleb thought perhaps their pursuers had broken off the attack. Then the world filled with noise and heat as the ship they'd just exited exploded in a fireball. Hera stopped, turning to watch the destruction of her freighter, her mouth open. A clone grabbed one arm, and his brother grabbed the other. They forced her to keep running.

Caleb searched the landscape. The strange, cone-like mound formations around them were the same as in his memory. The chilly air that streamed in steam from their mouths as they ran was familiar. Ahsoka stretched out her hand, and he felt one large cone called to them. The Temple.

Fire strafed across their position, mercifully missing them. He could hear ships landing just out of sight behind other mounds, and out of range of the weapons the clones had brought.

"Together," Ahsoka said, reaching out with the Force. Caleb joined her, stretching his powers. Leia watched them, then closed her eyes. The raw power she commanded mingled with theirs. Just as it had when he'd been sixteen, the Temple spiralled up from the ground, rising to reveal a door. Either his memory was deceiving him, or the door was different this time. The previous door had led him into a vision. This one yawned with boding and despair.

Shots fired towards them. There was no choice.

"We'll hold them out here," said one of the clones. Caleb didn't even know his name. Ahsoka might; she touched his shoulder, meeting his eyes with acknowledgement and gratitude. Three clones took up defensive positions around the door. The fourth followed them inside and took guard at the other side of the door.

Caleb said to the clone, "My master told me there are tunnels running underground all through the Temple and outside past where they'll be looking. When it's time to retreat, you can escape that way."

"Yeah, retreat," said the clone with a scoff. His blaster looked old but well-maintained. "We've got this. Go on, General."

"I'm not..." Objecting was no use. "Thank you, soldier," he said instead.

"Stay here, Chop," Hera told her astromech, which grumbled back at her. Uninvited, she followed the Jedi deeper into the Temple. Outside, they could hear the low rumble of the battle. They didn't have much time.

"Lead the way," Ahsoka said. Her eyes had gone distant, though. She could feel it, too.

Caleb let the power of the holocron guide him through the winding stone corridors as deeply-recessed lights sparked into life along the ceiling. He hadn't felt the pull this strongly before. This was different. They were being summoned. This was either destiny or a trap.

His feet knew the way to the inner chamber. Ahsoka's hands knew the simple movement to open the door. Hera stood just inside the room, her blaster at the ready as their final guard. Leia stepped into the chamber last, watching silently.

After the rise of the Temple and the long path they'd taken to get here, the holocron itself was disappointingly plain. It sat in a sconce, other holocrons in similar spots beside it lining the wall. A stranger coming to steal the secrets of this Temple would not know the precious holocron from the many surrounding it, and he supposed that was the idea.

The one they sought shone out with the Force like a beacon, as if it had awakened in anticipation. Ahsoka pulled it to her hand. The jeweled box glittered in her grasp, opening at a touch of her power. Each holocron contained knowledge. This one sparkled out with dense script in front of them, detailing the working they must perform. They read through quickly, ears stretched for any sound from the corridor. Perhaps the clones had held their attackers at bay. Perhaps they wouldn't all be cut down in a vain attempt to protect this poor little world from falling victim to the plague destroying the galaxy.

The Temple rumbled, shaking around them.

Ahsoka placed the holocron into Leia's hand. "You've got more power than I do."

Fear crossed Leia's face. "I don't know how."

Ahsoka placed a second hand on top of hers. "It's all right. I do. Follow along. You'll want to to enter the second meditation state."

Leia closed her eyes. After a moment, Caleb came closer and touched her arm, already sensing the energy vibrating through her. "You know this one. Focus on your breathing." His mind touched the presence of hers, offering what serenity he could muster up as the stones shook dust around them.

Ahsoka began the incantation, muttering in a tongue Caleb didn't know even as the meaning echoed through him. Leia repeated the words and followed her movements as power grew between them. This was higher-level than he'd ever attempted, and as they worked, he understood how small his own powers were in comparison. He could only offer support to Ahsoka's great work, channeled into the roaring potential of Leia's gifts. The Force rushed through them, filling the small room with a far larger power. The wisdom they unlocked shimmered like a living thing, telling him to move lines of energy here and cast apart the seams there. History danced before them, with a hole opening wide, allowing passage through to the one time they must go.

The portal glowed an unpleasant shade of purple, and the air tasted bad. The laws of physics resisted this infernal offense against them.

Ahsoka stepped towards the violet light.

"It cannot be you." Leia's face had gone impassive, eerie and lavender with reflected radiance. "Father met someone he trusted implicitly. If you go, you will fulfill the time loop instead of stopping it." Her flat tone filled the room like lead. Leia was speaking, but the holocron was speaking through her. The Force worked within her now. If she was very, very lucky, her mind would remain intact when it had finished with her. The only way to help her now was to end this working as fast as possible.

"She's right," Caleb said, and hated the words because he knew what they meant. He'd been on a one-way trip since they left Coruscant. "Take Leia and get out of here. The Padawans are going to need you a lot more than they ever needed me."

Ahsoka's face twisted into frustration. She clearly wanted to go. She also clearly knew she shouldn't. She glared at Caleb instead. "Do not kriff this up!"

"I'll do my best." He took a steadying breath, wondering if he had any proper last words in him. Some final piece of advice for Leia. Some noble statement about the nature of time and space. Maybe even some trite comment about other lives they all might have lived in other timelines. His eyes went for a moment to the doorway. Other lives.

"Hurry up," said Ahsoka, and Caleb said nothing. He stepped through the purple light.

He instantly regretted his choice. Every molecule in his body churned with white heat, forced backwards in a way matter was never intended to go. Had he air in his lungs, he'd scream as his brain burned and his eyes ached and his veins threatened to reform outside his skin.

After hours of agony, he fell to the ground face first. Pain throbbed through his muscles, which, after a moment, he decided were still inside his body and intact.

Beside him, Hera said, "Ow."

When Caleb could breathe without feeling like his teeth would be sucked in with every gasp, he said, "What are you doing here?"

She was already climbing to her feet, woozy but recovering. She offered him a hand. "You're going to need help. I'm helping."

Low lights flickered on as they stood, showing them the series of holocrons all around them. The important one sat like any other. He remembered which one it was, but now the energy level was low. He lacked the power to activate the time tunnel on his own.

Ahsoka and Leia were nowhere to be seen. The Temple didn't shake around them and instead had the cool, dry feeling of a long-abandoned tomb.

Nobody believed he could accomplish anything without assistance. "I didn't need your help."

She folded her arms and waited.

Caleb relented. "But I won't say I'm sorry you're here. Come on. We need to find out if we're at the right time. We're certainly on the wrong planet."

Exiting the Temple was harder than their entrance had been. A few false starts finally brought them into one of the breezy escape tunnels. Depa had been right about those, and he hoped she'd been correct about them leading outside rather than into dead ends. He lit his lightsaber to guide their way, careful with his steps lest he walk right into an unseen chasm as they made their way. After a long time, they stepped outside into cold air.

Hera looked around them, sighting the Temple in the distance, then pointed. "As we flew over, I saw a settlement that way. We can walk it in an hour or two."

"Yeah, assuming it was there fourteen years ago." Which, to be fair to her, it probably would have been. Planets like this set up settlements and kept them for a long time. They set out, too focused on staying warm in the crisp air to talk much. And what would he say? Why had she come with him on a foolhardy errand he was almost certain to fail? Actually, that was a good enough reason, assuming she thought she might help the mission succeed just as Leia had.

The afternoon darkened and the early stars came out. Caleb glanced up, wondering. He and Depa had been on Kaller when their clones had gone mad and died. The time tunnel had been created with the thought of bringing them back a few days early in order to have time to reach Coruscant. A few days before everything had gone wrong, Caleb had been aboard a ship in transit between worlds, meditating in his quarters with Depa and clowning around with the clone troopers. None of them had any idea what the future would hold. He wished he could tell himself to appreciate that time more before it all came to an end.

As the lights of the settlement glowed ahead of them, he asked Hera, "If you could tell your younger self something now, what would it be?"

She didn't respond for a while. "I'd tell myself the noise in the courtyard isn't a ghost, and I shouldn't be scared to look inside the Y-Wing."

"You thought the ship was haunted?"

"I heard noises there some nights. It scared the daylights out of me. Father thought the droid inside the ship had been destroyed, so he'd left it when he and Mother pulled the pilot's body out to return to the Republic. Eventually, I worked up the courage to look inside for myself, and found Chopper. He was stuck in the ship for months with his power cells depleted and half his casing destroyed. When the sunlight was just right, he could absorb enough solar power to call out for help but we usually couldn't hear him, and when I did, I thought he was the pilot's ghost. If I told little me to gather her courage now, he wouldn't have had to suffer for so long."

Caleb tried to picture Hera as a kid peeping over the edge of the crashed ship, frightened but determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. The thought brought a smile to his face.

They reached the settlement as full night fell. Hera had enough credits on her to buy passage on a transport to the closest major city, where they'd be able to find a ship capable of interstellar travel. Caleb worried as the time trickled by, even as they sped through the night on the speeder. Just because they had days didn't mean they wouldn't spend those days getting off this world.

The city was barely worth the name. Nevertheless, Hera thanked their driver and paid him the second half of the negotiated fee before they made their way through the sparsely-populated streets. Locating the spaceport wasn't difficult. Obtaining a ship would be.

"I've got enough credits left for dinner, if we're not very hungry," she said. Caleb's pockets were empty. The street fair he'd taken the twins to had been a long time ago, in his personal timeline.

There were other concerns. "Everything we do will have some effect on the future. The money we paid to the driver might change the course of his life. Same with booking passage on a ship. We have to be careful."

"Agreed." She frowned as they examined the ships in the spaceport. There weren't many, and only one was accepting passengers for tomorrow's departure. "But we don't have many choices. We don't have money for tickets. We don't have a ship. We have to get to Coruscant or this mission cannot succeed. If we fail, trillions of people will die."

"When you put it like that..."

The transport was ugly but Hera was sure she could get speed out of it. Caleb stood watch while she broke inside and wired the controls to work without the starter codes. They were nearly in the clear when the Besalisk dockmaster rolled out of his office and saw Caleb failing to look casual beside their target.

"Who are you?"

"No one," Caleb said. He used the Force on the man's mind. "You want to go back into your office and open the landing hatch."

The dockmaster blinked heavily. "I'll open the landing hatch now."

"Good man." Caleb boarded the ship as the engines hummed to life. "We should go before he changes his mind."

"Right. Hang on." The transport jerked into life. Hera eased it out of the dock and up into the sky.

Caleb sat back, checking the chronometer on the console. They had a day and a half left, and it would take much of that time to reach Coruscant. The only good news was that they probably wouldn't make more waves in the timeline while they were in space. Grand larceny and petty mind-pushing were bad enough.

As soon as they were in hyperspace en route to the Core, Hera stood up from the pilot's seat. "I'll see what tweaks I can make to the engines while we're flying. Usually Chopper helps me with these kinds of repairs." Her face went strange for a moment. "I left him back there in that temple. I'll never see him again." She was finally allowing the events of the past few days to catch up with her, culminating in her impulsive decision to join Caleb here in the past. What they'd been through, what they'd lost, would be enough to make anyone crumple into a ball. They didn't have time to crumple now.

"I'll help," said Caleb standing up from his own seat. "Just tell me what to do."

He'd keep her distracted. They could tinker with the ship, then see if there was any food aboard. After that, they had a day to kill as their transport rushed through hyperspace. That was a long time to let panic and despair settle back in, which would do neither of them any good. "We've both been flying on adrenaline since we met. When we're done with the engines, we should think about catching up on some sleep. We want to be at our best when we try to subvert history tomorrow, right?"

Her mouth quirked into a half-smile. "Odd. I was having a very similar thought." This could be the panic talking again, he reminded himself as she stepped closer. They should see to the engines and find out if they could get to Coruscant faster, he told himself firmly as her hands touched his wrists. This was a bad idea, he thought, as he felt the warmth of her body pressing against him through her jumpsuit and his robes.

The engines could wait, he decided, and he didn't protest as she pulled him to her for a second, and much longer kiss.

* * *

Coruscant was no different fourteen years ago. The sprawling city-world glittered below them. They landed close to the Senate Building. The report of their theft hadn't yet bothered the Core Worlds, and wouldn't for days. By then, for better or worse, this would be finished.

"We need to get there before Master Windu," Caleb said, watching the time closely. "If we wait, we'll be too late."

"You know it's very likely we'll have to kill this stranger we're looking for. Anyone determined enough to travel through time to change the past isn't going to listen to reason."

He'd thought about that, and what it meant about the two of them as well. They must succeed, or they would die trying. There were no other options.

They hurried through the streets to the Senate Office Building. Chancellor Palpatine's office would be on a high floor above them. The public entrance was still open for business. Caleb let himself be scanned as they entered the building, and he was permitted to keep his lightsaber. Hera was asked to surrender her blaster.

"I want a receipt for that," she told the guard, who wrote her one. She snatched it from his hand and placed it into a pocket.

"What was that about?"

"Distraction." Hera nudged him, and he saw she'd lifted her blaster while the guard had been busy writing. They found the lifts to the top floors.

"We can't be seen," he said, and they stepped off two floors early, making their way to the stairs. Guards were posted this high up. Caleb convinced them to take a nap, knowing he could just as easily be opening a path for the person they were here to stop.

The corridor holding Palpatine's office was curiously empty. He'd have expected more guards, but it was as if they had all been sent away.

He sensed Master Windu's presence in the building, familiar and comforting. Caleb bit down on his impulse to break cover and seek out the man, telling him everything. Master Windu was wise. He'd know how to break this awful cycle.

He felt Hera's hand on his arm. She met his eyes.

"He could be killed," Caleb mouthed at her.

"He'll definitely die if we fail," she mouthed back.

The air changed. The world skewed. Someone else had suddenly appeared close by. The Force shimmered off them as they gasped in pain. Caleb didn't see them, but he sensed the presence as clearly as if they were right in front of him.

"Come on," he said to Hera, and crept from their hiding place to an adjoining office.

A cloaked figure was already rising to stand, shimmers of purple dissipating as the time tunnel's effects wore off. Traveling directly into the same building would have been risky.

Caleb lit his lightsaber. "Stay where you are."

The figure turned, revealing a woman, much older than he was, emanating a power he recognized now that he saw her face. Age had changed her features, padding her in some places and hardening her in more, and all her dark hair had gone gray. Time had not dulled the determined set of her chin nor sharp conviction in her voice.

"What are you two doing here?" Leia demanded.

* * *

to be continued


	8. Chapter 8

From outside the small office where they hid, Caleb heard the lift doors open. Master Windu and the other Jedi sent with him had come to arrest the Chancellor. He knew this story. The other Masters would die, leaving Mace alone to fight the Sith Lord. Anakin Skywalker would appear in a few minutes, and he would strike down Palpatine. This was history.

Leia clearly understood the time had come as well. She pulled out her blaster and aimed it between them. "I have to get out there now." Someone had set the history Caleb knew into motion from this point. Someone Skywalker would trust. Someone he would change the universe for at her word.

"You're here to tell Anakin that Palpatine is using and betraying him," Caleb said. She nodded. "Leia, you can't." Hera startled, peering more closely at their adversary. Time and woes they couldn't imagine had aged her, chiseling deep lines across her face, and deeper ones in her soul. His Padawan had grown old, but her eyes remained clear and the determination written there could drill through to the core of this planet.

"I have to."

Leia fired. Caleb deflected the bolt easily.

From the Chancellor's office, he heard lightsabers flare, and felt the stabbing cold as Master Kolar and Master Tiin fell in rapid succession. Moments later, Master Fisto died, leaving Master Windu alone with the Sith Lord. History marched onwards. Every cell within him urged Caleb to join Windu in his battle, to offer his lightsaber in the service of the Order and cut down the terrible threat before them.

A worse threat stood before him now, wearing the face of someone he cared about.

Leia fired again. As Caleb caught the blast, Hera rushed her, getting a hard elbow to her stomach for the trouble. She kicked out, sending Leia sprawling, and throwing her weight over her.

"You don't understand!" Leia said, pushing Hera away. "I can stop it all. He'll listen to me. The Empire never has to exist!"

"What Empire?" Hera asked.

Leia's face changed, watching the confusion in Hera's eyes. "You're here from the other timeline?" Caleb nodded. "Then you know it works. I have to go now. He'll build a weapon that can destroy planets!" He sensed the agony inside her, mourning the loss of millions. "He destroyed my world."

This was his Padawan, older and harder and far more desperate, but the woman was the same girl he'd said goodbye to yesterday. He'd jumped back in time to stop the interloper, even kill them if necessary. He held his lightsaber at the ready while knowing he could never strike her down. His Leia had learned to like and respect him because of his honesty. It was his only possible weapon now.

He lower his lightsaber. "In our timeline, everyone is dead."

She went still. "How?"

"The Separatists. If you go in there now, a thousand worlds will die."

Power flared, dark energy he'd never sensed before, filling his head with a screeching din as light he couldn't see flowed in a great tide. Caleb turned to the wall as though he could see Anakin Skywalker arrive to witness the powerful exchange. In one universe, Skywalker would strike down Sidious and earn the galaxy a terrible peace. In this one...

Caleb had been far from home when the hammer fell upon the people he loved back in his timeline, not a few meters away from a man he'd admired and cared about most of his life. Agony ripped through Caleb as Windu fell. "I'm so sorry," he tried to say. Somewhere on a distant world, he knew Depa was wracked with the same sudden loss.

Taking advantage of his lapse in concentration, Leia kicked him away, reaching for her blaster. "We can still stop them," she said, back on her feet. "They won't be expecting us. Anakin is becoming Darth Vader at this moment, but I can pull him back from the Dark Side if I go right now!"

"Who died?" Hera stepped back as the blaster swung towards her.

"All the Jedi will die. He'll murder them, even the younglings. Vader and his Master will take over the galaxy, and even when we defeat them, they'll still be dragging their dark shadows behind them for decades." She stepped closer to the door. "I can prevent it. He'll know me and he'll listen to me."

Hera said, "You came here to save your father."

Leia gave a short, hard bark of a laugh, and in it, Caleb heard the same thick cough Depa had when her illness relapsed. The bitter laugh turned to an equally bitter smile. "My father can rot in hell for all I care. I came here to save my son from him." The words ripped from her like a scab off a wound, bleeding with every word.

No wonder Master Windu couldn't foretell the future they'd lived in. Leia and her brother hadn't even been born yet when all of history spun on a single point out of Leia's love for her child.

"You said 'all the Jedi,'" Caleb said, cold fear moving through his mind, clouding his vision. He didn't dare let it consume him now.

Leia took another step towards the door. On her face, he could see the awful battle between what she'd come here to prevent, and what they'd told her the outcome would be if she succeeded. "They're about to send out an order. The clone troopers have been programmed to murder the Jedi they serve. Vader will go back to the Jedi Temple and slaughter everyone there. We can stop them."

He recalled the screams in his mind as world after world snuffed out. In his timeline, the Jedi had already died. Grief reached out, seeking a planet he only remembered for the sorrow he'd learned there. _"Depa,"_ he thought at her. _"Run!"_ Across time and space, he felt her, the familiar, beloved touch of her mind filled with confusion as she heard his thoughts while staring at the boy he'd been.

And the blasts began.

"It's too late," he said to Leia. He doused his blade, sensing the first wave of deaths, feeling the bright spark of Depa's mind shimmer into nothingness. He'd come back to try to save her, to save all of them. He'd failed. He wondered how the mirrored ripple of his own death would feel, if he would wink out of existence as a younger Caleb died under a barrage of blaster bolts.

No. Leia had recognized him. Somehow, somewhere, the child he was would survive this catastrophe while all others fell and died. Again.

Leia closed her eyes.

"How far away is the Temple?" Hera asked. They both looked at her. "Can we get there first?"

"We can't stop them at the Temple," said Leia, voice ragged and wan. "Vader struck down all the Jedi he found there, from the smallest younglings to the most experienced warriors. I'm not good enough to kill him. I had one chance to turn him." Her shoulders sagged.

"In our world, you saved him," Caleb said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Dozens of stories played through his head, from his own teachers, from his friends, and from his apprentice and her twin as they trained under his and Ahsoka's watchful gaze. "He was a good man. He died trying to prevent the disaster that struck our timeline. You and Luke were really proud of him."

"But it wasn't enough," she said.

"No."

Hera was already through the door. Caleb went with her, letting Leia come with them or stay in her own private hell as she chose. She followed.

The building was in chaos. They rushed through the crowds, headed for their stolen ship. "What's your plan?" Caleb asked, his mind echoing with the faraway deaths cascading into pain and silence. Leia joined them on the ship.

Hera said, "You said they were headed to the Temple to kill everyone there."

"Yes. It's a matter of history now."

"Did anyone ever count the bodies?"

Leia froze. Then she shook her head.

"History is what gets written down," said Hera, and in moments, they'd touched down on a landing pad near the top tier of the Jedi Temple. "Caleb, where are the youngling quarters?"

Leia stunned both landing bay guards with her blaster. Caleb hurried through the corridors. He'd grown up here. His feet knew the way to the same rooms where he'd spent the nights of his childhood. As he opened the door, he saw faces lit up by the corridor lights. None of the younglings were asleep yet, too anxious from the eddies they felt in the Force.

He turned to the first child he saw, and his heart skipped as he saw who it was. Channeling his inner Master Windu, he said, "Byph, gather the Padawans. We are leaving immediately."

"Who are you?" asked a girl.

He was sure he'd know who she was in a moment, as the young face was overlaid with the woman she'd become, but now he merely lit his lightsaber. "We're friends."

"We've come from the Temple on Ryloth," Hera said with urgency. "There's been a security breach. You need to come with us at once." The lie worked. At once, the dozen or so children in the room slipped out of bed and obediently lined up.

"There's a nursery," Leia said, gazing into the next room. "Children," she ordered, "come with me. Everyone grab the hand of a little one. We must hurry."

The smallest younglings were less obedient than the older children, and they fussed as they toddled along or were carried. Below them, the Temple rumbled with the sound of blasters, and Caleb ached with pain as others died. This was only one floor. Jedi lived throughout the Temple, from younglings to Masters, and those on the lower floors were dying. "Hurry," he said to the children beside them, and helped load them onto their stolen transport.

A blaster shot hit the ship beside him.

Caleb spun, lightsaber lit. Clones flowed out from the hangar entrance, spilling into the docking bay in a white wave of death. He blocked the blasts, aiming them away from the soldiers. These troopers shared everything with the men he'd known, from the clones he'd seen die when he was a boy to the clones who'd stayed behind at the Temple on Lothal to give them this chance. He couldn't stand the thought of killing their brothers here and now.

The troopers closed in on his position as he blocked more and more bolts. "Launch!" he shouted back. "Get them out of here!" The engines fired, and the clones turned their attention to the transport. Caleb stepped further from the ship, trying to draw their fire.

Everyone he'd ever known was dead. The world had ended twice under his watch. As the intensity of the blaster bolts increased, a curious peace settled into his limbs. The Force worked through him, his muscles responding to a lifetime of training and keyed in to the same prescient energy flow that Luke and Leia had always tapped as they'd sparred. Should he attack his attackers now, he knew his lessons in Vaapad would come back to him, using the shadow of the Dark Side to guide his steps, slaughtering the clones where they stood. He felt that power calling to him as he walked away from the ship, not the dangerous fire of anger but a beckoning flame alighting him with purpose. Protect the children, both the scared little bodies aboard the transport and the too-young faces behind the cold, white masks, operating under programming they didn't understand. If all else was lost, he could give the last of his strength for this one, good thing.

Caleb faced the clone troopers, and he forgave them.

Blasts ricocheted harmlessly from his lightsaber into the walls and the ceiling. He would not harm the clone troopers. He would not allow them to harm the younglings. He would protect the transport while Hera and Leia got the children safely away. This was his purpose. This was why he'd lived while others had perished. The Force had chosen Caleb for this task, guiding all the steps of his life's journey to this one perfect moment.

The shots grew more concentrated on his position. Troopers closed in, forcing him back towards the ship as he deflected faster and faster. The Force controlled his movements now, as he moved in perfect serenity, counting his own heartbeats while he waited for the transport to take off.

Blaster shots rang out from behind him, striking the troopers in front of him dead on. He had no time to think as their attention turned back to the ship. An arm reached out, dragging him to the ground.

A moment later, an electric explosion blossomed with searing white brilliance in the middle of the cluster of troopers. Caleb faced away from them, staring at Leia. She had a blaster in one hand and a second stun grenade in the other. She tossed her grenade and yanked him towards the open hatch. "Get on the damn ship."

Only moments had passed since the clones had opened fire. It felt like a lifetime.

Caleb stumbled aboard as the hatch closed firmly behind them. He had offered his life up to the Force, had been prepared to die at the end of his one perfect moment. The moment was past, and he was still alive.

The smallest younglings began to cry. Leia picked up a child and began soothing him as Hera hit the emergency liftoff sequence. Caleb found himself pressed between two dozen frightened little bodies who could sense that everything had gone terribly wrong. He knelt down, losing his balance as the ship lifted from the landing pad. He picked up a small girl, then squeezed her in a sudden hug as blaster fire strafed the side of their ship.

Hera dodged the blasts, taking them on a steep climb. Behind them, other ships lifted off in pursuit. The Temple was already overrun, and they didn't intend to allow any escapees.

"What are our weapons?" Leia asked.

Hera spun their transport to avoid another barrage. "I don't think we have any."

Leia smiled, and her face was tired. "It was a worthy try. We might have done something good."

"We're not done," said Hera, and her fingers danced over the controls. Caleb couldn't see what she was doing, but a moment later, he felt the sudden pull of hyperspace.

"You can't do that in atmosphere," he tried to say, but it came out as a groan as his brain tried to climb out through his ears. Near-planetary jumps were ill-advised for a lot of good reasons. But they were alive.

He looked around the crowded transport. The oldest children here might have been thirteen, barely old enough to be taken on as Padawans, not nearly old enough to defend themselves. Inside his heart, he felt the death count rise. Ten thousand Jedi lived and worked across the galaxy. If Leia was right, most were dying right now, and more would follow. He crawled through his memories, desperate to recall their locations.

"We can't help the rest," Leia said, reading his thoughts as clear as if he'd spoken them. "All we can do is protect these kids until it's safe for them to come out of hiding." She watched him over the pile of children. They had come along obediently for the moment, but they understood something terrible was happening. They would have questions, and they would need food, and shelter, and more. The enormity of what the three of them had done shook him as deeply as the rocking blows he felt from across the stars. These children were Jedi he'd grown up with. Tai and Ganodi spoke together in low voices, growing distrustful of the strangers who'd abducted them.

Caleb said, "Padawan Uzuma, are you familiar with the first meditation?" Tai startled, unsure how he knew her name. "Yes." She paused. "Master."

"I'd like you to lead the older students in an exercise. Please gather them in the back and walk them through the basics of first and second. When we are settled, I will lead you through a special meditation my master taught me for hyperspace."

Caleb and Tai had trained together long ago and she'd always been a better student than he was. He couldn't teach all these younglings himself. He would have to rely on his old friends for their help. He would have to explain to them who he was and what had happened, and they would not want to believe him. Training one reluctant teenager had been trouble enough.

The headache was growing again.

When the older children had gone into the back, he asked Leia, "How long are we planning to hide? When do things get better? This is your timeline, not ours." Hera sat back in her chair, watching Leia for the answer.

"A while," she said, turning away from their matched stares. "The Empire is rising, and under Palpatine's rule, being a Jedi means an automatic death sentence. These children will be hunted. You both have doubles running around out there, and in another day or so, so will I. We need to get away from the Core, as far out into the Outer Rim as this ship will take us, even into uncharted space if we can make it. Then we wait."

Hera met his eyes. They'd traveled fourteen years to get here, and he had a bad feeling the way back was going to take them a lot longer. Without speaking, he asked her if she was up for this. Without replying, she glanced at the cockpit full of small younglings. He'd jumped into this situation without thinking first. Save the galaxy by rewriting time? Sure. Rescue a handful of Jedi initiates from the certain death he'd sentenced them all to? Naturally. Stand off a swarm of brainwashed clone troopers? Why not? Accomplish any of this with a plan? Any plan? No. He was rushing into the bar all over again, fists out and brain switched off. Somewhere in the Force, Depa was rolling her eyes at him, but he hoped wherever her spirit wandered now, she was also just a little bit proud.

Hera turned back to her console.

"Outer Rim, here we come."

end


End file.
